Stephen McKinley Henderson has worked throughout the United States, on and off Broadway, and in television and film. He is a Fox Foundation Fellow, Distinguished Alumnus of Purdue University College of Liberal Arts, and a former Chair of the department. His term as Chair was interrupted by his work with Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, August Wilson. In his eloquent obituary for Mr. Wilson, Michael Feingold of the Village Voice wrote:

“…To think of the great characters and scenes in August’s plays is to think of an epic parade of great African American actors who have seized their moment to make theater history: James Earl Jones and Mary Alice in Fences, Charles S. Dutton in Ma Rainey and The Piano Lesson, S. Epatha Merkerson confronting him in the latter, Roscoe Lee Browne sagely ironic in Two Trains Running, Stephen McKinley Henderson oozing malice in Jitney, Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Lisa Gay Hamilton glaring a skyful of weaponry at each other in Gem of the Ocean...”

In Buffalo, he has received two ArtVoice Awards, for Outstanding Performance and Career Achievement. In 1993 he accepted the Artist of the Year Award from the Arts Council of Western New York presented by National Endowment for the Arts Chair Jane Alexander.

Professor Henderson has been a part of several productions at Kennedy Center, most recently as a member of the acting company for Kenny Leon’s historic Century Cycle Readings in 2008. His four Broadway roles include Slow Drag in the revival of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom with Charles S. Dutton and Whoopi Goldberg, and Van Helsing in Dracula, The Musical, directed by Des McAnuff. His five off-Broadway roles include Pontius Pilate in the LAByrinth production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, directed by Phillip Seymour Hoffman and. Turnbo in August Wilson’s Jitney. During its off-Broadway run in 2000, Jitney garnered the N.Y. Drama Critic’s Award for Best Play and Drama Desk, Obie, and Audelco awards for each actor as members of the outstanding ensemble of the New York season. In Los Angeles, Professor Henderson won the NAACP Theatre Award for Outstanding Dramatic Performance by a Male as well as a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award as an outstanding featured actor. The London run of Jitney garnered the Olivier Award for Best New Play of the London season, 2002.

Film and television work includes Arthur in Jim McKay’s Everyday People for HBO Films, presented at the Sundance Film Festival; Omar in the Fox television series New Amsterdam; and two of William Duke’s PBS American Playhouse features, A Raisin in the Sun, with Danny Glover and Esther Rolle and The Killing Floor, with Alfre Woodard.

Dr. Samuel Hay cites Henderson’s work as an actor, director, and educator in his text, African American Theater, A Critical Analysis (Cambridge University Press) and John Houseman includes Henderson’s work at Juilliard in his memoirs, Final Dress (Simon and Schuster, 1983) and Unfinished Business (Applause, 1988).