Forrest McClendon is an internationally acclaimed award-winning performer, pedagogue and theater-maker.

He has appeared on and off-Broadway, and is most widely known for his Tony-nominated Broadway debut as Mr. Tambo in The Scottsboro Boys. Post-Broadway, Forrest received a Barrymore Award for reprising the role at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, and he also starred in the London premiere at the Garrick Theater, which won the Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical.

Forrest returned to Broadway in the first season post-COVID (Fall ‘21) shutdown as Depression in Keenan Scott II’s new play Thoughts of a Colored Man, a role he created in the world premiere co-production at Syracuse Stage and Baltimore Center Stage. Thoughts of a Colored Man shared the 2022 GLAAD Award for Outstanding Broadway Production with Company.

A recipient of the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship for top regional actors, Forrest has appeared from Austin to Boston in plays and musicals ranging from the Foundling Father in The America Play (Central Texas Critics Table Award) to Roscoe in Avenue X (Barrymore Award). Other favorites include Red Velvet (Lantern Theatre Company), Romeo and Juliet (North Carolina Shakespeare Festival), Seven Guitars (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Wild With Happy (Baltimore Center Stage) and the title role in Othello (Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre). Forrest has appeared at all of Philadelphia’s major theaters and has won two Barrymore Awards with five nominations. He has worked extensively on new plays and musicals at New Dramatists, Sundance, New York Stage and Film, The Playwrights’ Center and Amas Musical Theatre among others.

He has served as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Hartford, Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of Miami and Visiting Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre at the University of the Arts. Forrest often serves as adjudicator, clinician and master teacher, most recently as Visiting Scholar-in- Residence at Boston Conservatory at Berklee in the Africana Studies, Theater and Music Business programs.

[Master classes in the US and UK include Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, National Theater Institute, Theatre Academy of London, Rose Bruford College, Mousetrap Educational Theatre Projects, National Association of Teachers of Singing (Philadelphia), Musical Theatre Educators Alliance, New York University, Oklahoma City University, Chicago State University, University of Pennsylvania, Drexel Law School, C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater Acting Program, and his alma mater University of Connecticut—where he received his B.M. in Vocal Performance with directed study in Vocal Pedagogy.]

RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS

• COVID impact and innovation in the entertainment industry and higher education.
• Creator of ChoiceworkTM — 21st century ‘ethno-dramaturgical detective work’ for storytellers.
• Contemporary and classical text (from Suzan-Lori Parks to Shakespeare) in theatrical and/or cinematic mediums with particular focus on race, class and gender issues.
• Acting and singing pedagogy including dialects, styles and movement; certified as an Intimacy Captain by the Intimacy Coordinators of Color.
• Media, self-marketing and management skills for aspiring and working professionals.