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Brian Grandison

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Brian Grandison has worked as an actor, writer, director, professor, and artist in residence in the Twin Cities, around the country and internationally. He was a member of the acting company at the Guthrie Theater and has performed in plays at Mixed Blood, Illusion theater, History Theater, Theater Latte Da, Chanhassen Dinner Theater, Full Circle Theater and most recently at New Dawn Theater.  In New York he premiered Suite Saturday Night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In Chicago he was in The Rover and the premiere of Cry, the Beloved Country at the Goodman Theater. In Los Angeles he was a part of the premiere of Groomed by Don Cheadle,  later developed into a screenplay for Showtime Cable Network. Most recently, he was in Barb and Carl Write a Play at Illusion Theater, West of Central at the Pillsbury House Theater, and Under This Roof, which was a collaboration between the Guthrie and Full Circle Theater Company.

As a writer, Grandison is currently working on the play Quiet Tough for History Theater. His plays Diesel Heart (book by Melvin Carter Jr.) and Adrift on the Mississippi were produced by the History Theater in St Paul. His play Redemption will go into workshop sometime in the spring of 2024 at Wanderlust Productions.

As a professor, he currently leads the theater program at Minneapolis College, has taught acting for the University of Northwestern – St. Paul, and has been a Teaching Artist for the Neighborhood Bridges Program as well as an Independent Artist working with Minneapolis Public Schools. He has also taught theater and led writing workshops to adults who suffer from persistent mental illness in a collaboration between the History Theater in St. Paul and Vail Place.

In 2015, Grandison was awarded a Fullbright Specialist Fellowship to travel to Jamaica to teach theater and critical literacy to the students up in the mountains and rural communities of Bethabra, Bellefield, and Granville (outside Montego Bay), Jamaica. In October 2019, he returned to Jamaica to lead a workshop, with his colleagues Kiyoko Sims and Dr. Wendy Burghett at the University of West Indies, Mona Campus.