Lance Darnell Kwaku Gross (born July 8, 1981) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Calvin Payne on the TBS sitcom '' Tyler Perry's House of Payne'' and

OWN Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different ...

sitcom '' Tyler Perry's The Paynes''., as well as appearing in other Tyler Perry productions such as the '' Meet the Browns'' (2008) film and '' Tyler Perry's Temptations: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor'' (2013). He also co-starred in 2010's ''

Our Family Wedding ''Our Family Wedding'' is a 2010 American romantic comedy film directed by Rick Famuyiwa. It stars Forest Whitaker, America Ferrera, Carlos Mencia, Diana-Maria Riva, Lance Gross, Charlie Murphy and Regina King. The story is about an African-A ...

'' alongside

Forest Whitaker Forest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. After making his f ...

Carlos Mencia Ned Arnel "Carlos" Mencía (born October 22, 1967) is a Honduran-American comedian, writer, and actor. His style of comedy is often political and involves issues of race relations, Latin American culture, criminal justice, and social class. He i ...

America Ferrera America Georgina Ferrera (; born April 18, 1984) is an American actress. Born in Los Angeles to Honduran parents, Ferrera developed an interest in acting at a young age, performing in several stage productions at her school. She made her featu ...

, and

Regina King Regina Rene King (born January 15, 1971) is an American actress and director. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and four Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2019, '' Time'' magazine named her o ...

. He also starred as Secret Service Agent Marcus Finley in NBC's political drama ''

Crisis A crisis ( : crises; : critical) is either any event or period that will (or might) lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affair ...

''.

Early life and career

Gross was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the ...

, the child of an African American mother and Ghanaian immigrant father, and later moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, to attend and graduate from Bonanza High School. He went on to attend

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in theater. He then trained at The Ivanna Chubbuck Studio as well as the Tasha Smith Acting Studio. Gross began his career by modeling for

Karl Kani Karl Kani (; born Carl Williams on May 23, 1968 in Limon, Costa Rica) is an American fashion designer, founder and CEO of the hip hop fashion brand Karl Kani. He comes from a modest family from Brooklyn, New York. When he was young, he dreamed ...

and appearing in music videos for artists such as Mary J. Blige,

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to th ...

and

Mariah Carey Mariah Carey (; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Referred to as the " Songbird Supreme", she is noted for her five-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style and signature use of the w ...

. In 2006, he had minor roles in '' Eve'' and '' The Bernie Mac Show''. It was while he was performing in the Tasha Smith Acting Studio that he was discovered by

Tyler Perry Tyler Perry (born Emmitt Perry Jr., September 13, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and playwright. He is the creator and performer of the Madea character, a tough elderly woman. Perry's films vary in style from orthodox filmma ...

. He was consequently cast as Calvin Payne on Perry's new sitcom '' House of Payne''. In the show Gross plays Calvin, a young professional who has attended college for seven years. He has been awarded four

NAACP Image Award The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. Similar to ...

s for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for this role. 2008 saw Gross make his film debut in the romantic comedy '' Meet the Browns''. His next big screen appearance was in ''

'' in 2010 alongside

, in which they portrayed a recently engaged young couple whose wedding preparations are disrupted by their families. In 2012 he starred in the independent film ''The Last Fall'', the story of a retired NFL player dealing with financial and family difficulties. Currently Gross plays a major role on the Fox musical drama ''

Star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

''. In 2018, on OWN's ''The Paynes'', he makes an appearance as a recurring character in the episodes " A Surprise for the Paynes", " Revelations of Payne" and " A Confrontation of Payne", along with

Allen Payne Allen Payne (born Allen Roberts on July 7, 1968) is an American actor best known for his role as Jason Alexander in the 1994 drama film ''Jason's Lyric'', as well as his portrayal of C.J. Payne on the family sitcom '' Tyler Perry's House of Payn ...

, Demetria McKinney, Larramie "Doc" Shaw and China Anne McClain.

Personal life

In July 2006, Gross began dating actor Eva Marcille. The couple became engaged on December 24, 2008 and split up in March 2010. Later on May 23, 2015 Gross married fashion stylist Rebecca Jefferson The couple are parents to two kids, one daughter, Berkeley Brynn Gross (born November 20, 2014), and one son, Lennon Lorin Gross (born July 10, 2018). In November 2021 Gross became initiated as an official member of

Kappa Alpha Psi Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911 at Indiana University Bloomington, the fraternity has never restricted membership on the basis of color, cree ...

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gross, Lance 1981 births African-American male actors American male film actors American male television actors Living people American people of Ghanaian descent Howard University alumni Male actors from Oakland, California 21st-century American male actors 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people