Dwight Henry

Dwight Henry was born in 1962 in Nashville, Tennessee. He is currently based in New Orleans with his wife and five children. He is primarily an entrepreneur and the owner of a bakery, Buttermilk Drop Bakery. Henry never dreamed of a career in films, doesn’t so even now, but fame came to him anyway. He has acted in few but exceptional, award-winning movies – Beasts of the Southern Wild(2012), 12 Years a Slave(2013), The Birth of a Nation(2016) and is currently working on another project titled Sexual Healing. He went on to win the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Wink in his first movie and was nominated for numerous other awards as well. Movies came to him by chance, the auditions of the first film he acted in, Beasts of the Southern Wild, were happening in his neighbourhood, and he went for it “as a favour to a friend”. In an interview later, he said that he didn’t have much trouble identifying with his character, Wink and understanding the film, because his life experience had been quite similar. Henry grew up in a poor family and had to work from an early age to support his family. He recalls an incident from his childhood when he was only two years old. A hurricane had hit his hometown, and his mother took all the children to sit on the roof of their house.

They had very limited resources. Henry had to face grave circumstances after the Katrina Hurricane as well, when his house, his bakery and everything else got destroyed. But he did not give up hope and worked to build his bakery on his own from scratch.

Maybe it was this determination and genuine nature of his that appealed to the directors of the film. Even while shooting, Henry kept the bakery business his priority and the shoot was scheduled around his bakery timings. Zeitlin, the director of the movie, often told Henry to narrate his life experiences to build up the emotions of the actors before a scene. In 2014, the actor faced sentence on account of committing a felony – he is accused of having stolen 1000 dollars from the bakery where he worked as the head chef. But Henry denies these accusations and claims he is innocent.

He decided to go to trial rather than accept a plea bail at the risk of ending up behind bars. As of now, Henry is travelling around to promote his upcoming film The Birth of a Nation and focusing on his life. Henry’s is the classic story of ‘rags to riches’ and his determination and belief in hard work are what makes all the directors seek him out.