15 Facts About Vernel Bagneris

Vernel Martin Bagneris was born on July 31,1949 and is an American playwright, actor, director, singer, and dancer.

Vernel Bagneris's mother was a housewife and a deeply religious woman who "quietly outclassed most people, " and his father was a playful, creative man, a World War II veteran, and a lifelong postal clerk.

Vernel Bagneris grew up in the tightly knit, predominantly Creole Seventh Ward in a family of free people of color that had been in New Orleans since 1750.

Vernel Bagneris graduated in 1967, when overt instances of Jim Crow had diminished but seating was still segregated on public transportation, in restaurants and restrooms, and at water fountains.

Vernel Bagneris was admitted to Xavier University, a predominantly-black, Catholic university in New Orleans, at which his older siblings had matriculated.

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Vernel Bagneris declared sociology as his major, but during his second year, his girlfriend cajoled him into auditioning for the university's theater.

Free Southern Theater, which toured in rural, underprivileged areas of the South, performed two of Vernel Bagneris's plays while he was an undergraduate.

Vernel Bagneris became interested in avant-garde theater methods and, upon his graduation in 1972, traveled to Amsterdam to learn more about the Bread and Love experimental theater group.

In 1976, Vernel Bagneris saw a play in New York City that would change his life: Will Holt's Me and Bessie, a one-woman show about the blues legend Bessie Smith.

Vernel Bagneris spent a year creating the show; between roles as voodoo priests in independent movies and producing and starring in Edward Albee plays, Vernel Bagneris conducted research, developed oral histories, and interviewed his own grandmother.

Vernel Bagneris played opposite Ossie Davis in what was to be Davis's last film, the independent feature Proud.

Vernel Bagneris acted as the voice of numerous jazz figures on Public Radio International's Riverwalk Jazz program in 1993, recreating the lives of Bunk Johnson, Danny Barker, Jelly Roll Morton, and others.

In October 2005, just two months after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, Vernel Bagneris returned to live in New Orleans, ultimately settling in the French Quarter.

When Vernel Bagneris remounted One Mo' Time in New Orleans in December 2006, the three female cast members returned nightly to FEMA trailers that stood next to their damaged homes.

Vernel Bagneris had a recurring role as Judge Bernard Williams on the first three seasons of the HBO series Treme.