Brandon Mendez Homer | Life After Juilliard

Postcards From Juilliard Alums

I recently collaborated with Will Adams and David Foy to develop a one-hour TV drama—an epic western that follows a Black family’s struggle to come together when the matriarch is stripped away. It’s set to a backdrop of African folklore, American history, cowboys, pirates, and high fantasy. In the wake of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake, and so many others, I’m proud my writing partners and I have created a story that quite literally has healing powers. A story that centers on Black women and empowers Black men in a way we haven’t seen dramatized on screen before. A story that explores the divisiveness of colorism and challenges the dilution of identity through Afrofuturism. I’m also in pre-production for my semiautobiographical short film, a comedy-drama called Crackback83.

In November 2019, I made my TV debut on Blue Bloods guest-starring across from Bridget Moynahan. I portrayed Darnell Johnson, a wrongfully convicted Black father who’s working with the Innocence Project to gain his freedom. I’m glad that coming out the gate I got to tell a resonant and impactful story.

I’ve also written a 20-page manuscript of my own acting/rehearsal technique, which introduces a tennis ball to help actors access their inspiration, analysis, body, and uncertainty in rehearsal. This spring, I did a two-day workshop about it with drama students at LaGuardia High School and I’ve been sharing proposals with Juilliard Drama and other institutions to incorporate it into their curriculums as a way to help implement a more inclusive, collaborative, and anti-racist approach in the rehearsal room.

Sadly COVID-19 has delayed the slicing of the wedding cake for my fiancée and me. But we are saving our sweet tooth for next year.

Brandon Mendez Homer (Group 48)