Michael Kenneth Williams.

Michael Kenneth Williams grew up in the Vanderveer Estates housing project in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, where he was born on November 22, 1966. His mother Paula Thompson was from the Bahamas, and his father Booker had roots in Greeleyville, South Carolina. He attended George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School and later Borough of Manhattan Community College.

At age 22, he began his career as a professional dancer, performing in music videos and as a background dancer for Madonna and George Michael. He sustained a large facial scar from a bar fight on his 25th birthday, which became a distinctive feature.

After being discovered by Tupac Shakur, he landed his first major acting role in the 1996 film Bullet. He then portrayed Omar Little in HBO’s The Wire 2002, a role he got after a single audition. He co-starred as Chalky White in Boardwalk Empire 2010, which won a SAG Award for ensemble in 2012. Emmy nominations followed for Bessie 2015 and The Night Of 2016.

In 2018, he produced the documentary Raised in the System, earning a producing Emmy nomination. His film work includes 12 Years a Slave 2013, selected for the National Film Registry. He appeared in music videos for MGMT in 2013 and modeled for GAP in 2014.

He had a son named Elijah Williams. He also helped raise three children who were not his biological children, as he stated in a 2020 interview — their biological father had died, and Williams became their only father figure. He had a twin brother and a brother named Paul. His twin sister is Michelle Chambers, a city councilmember in Compton.

During his portrayal of Omar Little, he struggled with an identity crisis, going by the character’s name, and developed a cannabis and cocaine addiction in 2004. He was an activist, serving as the ACLU’s Ambassador of Smart Justice and founding the charity Making Kids Win.

Michael Kenneth Williams’s portrayal of Omar Little on The Wire is widely studied for its complexity and humor. He discovered actress Felicia Pearson in a Baltimore club and helped her get cast on the show. His documentary Raised in the System raised awareness about juvenile justice reform. He campaigned for roles in major films like Aquaman and was originally cast in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Posthumous tributes highlighted his ability to bring humanity to unconventional characters.