J. August Richards

Personal context

Summary

J. August Richards is an actor known for playing Charles Gunn on Angel and Mike Peterson/Deathlok on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., alongside roles in The West Wing, Grey’s Anatomy, and Council of Dads. His television work spans genre drama, science fiction, and family stories. He publicly came out as gay in 2020 and has said that black and LGBTQ representation matters to him; when playing a black gay husband on Council of Dads, he pushed for details that reflected his own experience. In 2020, he called for police and criminal justice reform, an end to the prison industrial complex, and attended two protests following George Floyd’s murder.