Charles Reese plays the feisty chef, Jalil Baldwin on the American TV sitcom, Beauty and the Baller, (BET Television). The show is based on the web series, Who, created by the late Emmy winning writer-producer, Michael Ajakwe Jr.
Reese is a New York Audelco Awards nominee and a native of Washington, D.C. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communications & Theatre Arts from Morehouse College. Reese also holds a certificate of completion in Theatre Performance/Management from the Burt Reynolds Theatre Institute under the tutelage of the late Master Theatre Director/Producer, Jose Quintero in association with Florida State University.
Reese is known in the theatrical circles for his critically-acclaimed Off-Broadway performance in Howard Simon’s production of James Baldwin: A Soul on Fire. Critic David DeWitt of The New York Times called the play, “…funny, thrilling and wise, buoyed by the passionate performance of Charles Reese in the title role.” Additional Off-Broadway and regional theatre credits include: In Dahomey (New Federal Theatre); Freedom Fighters & Friends (Arena Stage); Julie Hebert’s St. Joan and the Dancing Sickness (Open Fist Theatre); and Myla Churchill’s Griot Trio (Aaron Davis Hall). Television credits include: WHO…a micro web comedy (Ajakwetv); He was also in Law & Order, Between the Lines, Grapevine, In the Heat of the Night (episodes). Film: 40, On the Low, and Road Lawyers and Other Briefs.
As a writer, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the death of James Baldwin, Reese co-authored the book adaption of James Baldwin: A Soul On Fire, which includes the play version and commentary to pay homage to Baldwin’s legacy as an author and civil rights activist. He also contributed an essay titled James Baldwin: Artist as Activist and the Baldwin /Kennedy Secret Summit of 1963 to the volume, James Baldwin: Challenging Authors, edited by Paul L. Thomas & A. Scott Henderson.
Reese was a guest speaker at the 2016 International James Baldwin Conference at the American University of Paris in France. He served as the 2018 James Baldwin Artist in Residence for the inaugural James Baldwin Writer’s Colony at the Emerson College European Center at Kasteel Well in The Netherlands. He is a very popular lecturer/performance literary conversationalist at colleges, universities and cultural venues in the USA and internationally with his unique history-telling salon series, “James Baldwin: A Soul On Fire, A Literary Performance & Conversation .”
Reese is a founding associate and serves on the Board of Advisors for the world’s first web series festival, The Los Angeles Web Series Festival.
| Credit Type | Production | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Actor | In Dahomey | 1998-99 Season |
| Actor | James Baldwin: A Soul on Fire | 1999-00 Season |