Sinqua Walls

Sinqua Walls (born 6 April 1985) is an American former college basketball player and actor known for his roles in TV series Friday Night Lights (2008), The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2011-2012), and American Soul (2019-2020).

As a basketball player, he used to play for Cal Poly Pomona and the University of San Francisco.

He is also a published poet.

Sinqua Walls was born on April 6, 1985, in Louisiana, as the third child of his parents. He is of French and Native American Descent.

When he was young, his family relocated to Los Angeles, California, where he attended Beverly Hills High School.

Walls had always wanted to be an actor; the bug bit him at the age of eleven after he watched Richard Donner's 1992 drama Radio Flyer, which was the first movie he had totally memorized. Later, to pursue his passion for acting, he studied Theater and Film at the University of San Francisco arts program, graduating in 2007.

After graduation, Walls made his acting debut in 2007, playing a supporting role in Lucas Elliot Eberl's drama Choose Connor, starring Darin Cooper and Chris Marquette. In the same year, he was seen as "Desmond" in two episodes of TV series Lincoln Heights.

Walls' breakthrough role came in 2008, when he was cast as "Jamarcus Hall" on the critically acclaimed series Friday Night Lights. He was seen in 9 episodes of the series. In 2010, he guest-starred as "Tom Kates" in "Blink" episodes of Grey's Anatomy. The following year, he had a small role in George Griffith's From the Head,starring Griffith, Matthew Lillard, and Jeffrey Doornbos.

After appearing in an episode each of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2011) and Californication (2012), he landed the recurring role of "Daniel" in The Secret Life of the American Teenager. He was seen in 13 episodes of the series starring Shailene Woodley, Ken Baumann, and Mark Derwin. In 2012-2013, he was seen as "Vernon Boyd" in 15 episodes of TV series Teen Wolf.

Also in 2012, he appeared as "Sir Lancelot" in an episode of the second season of the TV Series Once Upon a Time. He returned to the series in its fifth season in 2015, in the same role.

In August 2017, Walls was cast in Clint Eastwood's The 15:17 to Paris, which is a dramatization of the true events of Thalys train attack on 21 August 2015, when a man opened fire on a Thalys train on its way from Amsterdam to Paris. The film, starring Ray Corasani, Alek Skarlatos, and Anthony Sadler, premiered on February 9, 2018.

2019 saw Walls in a significant role of "Matt Walker" in Cindy Chupack's Netflix comedy Otherhood, alongside Angela Bassett (his on-screen mother), Patricia Arquette, and Felicity Huffman.

Since February 2019, Walls has been portraying Don Cornelius on the TV series American Soul, which is loosely based on the business life of legendary American television host Don Cornelius. He plays an aggressive entrepreneur searching for an investor for his new music and dance TV series (Soul Train) to star and be produced by African Americans. The series is being directed by Peter O'Fallon and stars, besides Walls, Katlyn Nichol, Christopher Jefferson, and Iantha Richardson.

Walls is also filming for Krystin Ver Linden's drama Alice, in which he will be seen in one of the primary roles alongside Keke Palmer, Jonny Lee Miller, and Common.

Live Rampup reported in February 2018 that Walls is dating model Nickayla Rivera.

The following year, in April 2019, Bossip reported Walls is dating American actress and singer Naturi Naughton. All the reporting aside, Walls is a private person who keeps his private life away from the cameras.

Walls is a published poet, who also enjoys playing guitar and a variety of sports, along with being an advocate for the homeless and fighting hunger in America.

On working with Angela Bassett on Otherhood:

...It was really familial. We became a family. I think everybody was cast appropriately to play each other’s respective mother and son, and we had a good relationship and a great vibe. Angela's become like a mom to me in this industry, like an auntie.

On playing Don Cornelius:

It means pride, it means responsibility, and it means accountability. I think when I look at what our show does, but also what Don Cornelius did as far as moving culture forward and obviously being a representation of the black community at that time when there was an era of civil rights movements, we’re still overcoming certain levels of racial oppression and color repression.

On portraying Matt Walker in Otherhood:

I think that Matt and I are very similar in that we enjoy being around good people and having a good time. You could see that Matt was in his element at the at the party that he went to, when his mom showed up and kind of ruined his whole plan. I love that environment. But at the end of the day, when you're at home, you're at home. You want to be kind of introverted, don't want a lot of people in your space. I am like that in many ways.