Joseph Mydell

American screen and stage actor Joseph Mydell was born in 1955 in Savannah, Georgia. He started his early education at West Savannah elementary school and later went to Tompkins High School, finishing in the class of 1963. Mydell's passion for education took him into the halls of Morehouse College between 1964 and 1965 where he had his initial encounter with Martin Luther King. This was when King gave a speech at Mydell's school after receiving the Nobel Prize for Peace. Inspired by King and Bahá'ís, Mydell participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965. He furthered his education at the New York University, School of the Arts and attained his B.F.A. (1970) and M.F.A. (1974). Later, he joined the City University of New York (CUNY) where he acquired his Ph. D in Theatre studies (1976–1979). His career as an actor was shaped at the Atlanta Morehouse Spelman Players where he worked with Dr. Baldwin Burroughs in plays such as Shakespeare's The Tempest, and Trials of Brother Jero by Wole Soyinka. In 1969, he co-performed in a play named Who is America at the US Bahá'í national convention and other conferences. He also understudied Clevon Little off- Broadway. Adding to his repertoire, Mydell worked at the Seattle Repertory theatre and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1979, he traveled to England to research his one-man show on Paul Laurence Dunbar, Lyrics of the Hearthside, developed while studying for his Ph.D in theatre. He later won a Fringe First and Best One-Man Show award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1980.