Asante Blackk

Asante Duah Ma'at (born October 20, 2001), known professionally as Asante Blackk, is an American actor. He is best known for his role in the miniseries When They See Us (2019), for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. He is a series regular in the fourth season of the television series This Is Us (2019) for which he was nominated for a Critics' Choice Television Award.

He is the nephew of actress Samira Wiley.

Early life and career

Blackk began acting as an elementary school student at Judith P. Hoyer Montessori School; his first role was Mowgli in a performance of The Jungle Book. One of his first professional roles was in "How I Learned to Be a Kid" at The Howard Theatre in Washington, after which he got an agent. Blackk originally auditioned for the role of portraying Korey Wise, one of the exonerated members of the Central Park Five, in the dramatized miniseries When They See Us, but instead he was cast as the 14 year old Kevin Richardson. The role earned him an Primetime Emmy Award nomination, making him one of the youngest nominees in its history. In 2019, he played Malik, a teenage father dating Deja (Lyric Ross), in season 4 of the series This Is Us.