Life and career

Henderson was born in Kansas City

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

, Missouri, the son of Ruby Naomi and Elihue Henderson. He was originally part of Group 1

Group One

Group One or Group 1 is the term used for the highest level of Thoroughbred and Standardbred stakes races in many countries. Group One races may be run under handicap conditions in Australia but in Europe weight-for-age conditions always apply. Races may be also restricted to age groups or a...

 of the Juilliard Drama School, later finishing his degree at the North Carolina School of the Arts

North Carolina School of the Arts

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts , formerly the North Carolina School of the Arts, is a public coeducational arts conservatory in Winston-Salem, North Carolina that grants high school, undergraduate and graduate degrees. It is one of the seventeen constituent campuses of the...

. He later studied at Rose Bruford College

Rose Bruford College

Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance is a British drama school, offering university-level and professional vocational training for theatre and performance and the BA and MA degrees, based in Sidcup, Southeast London.-History:Founded in 1950, Rose Bruford "pioneered the first acting degree...

 in England.

Henderson is known for his role as Arthur in the acclaimed HBO film, Everyday People. Other film credits include Lester in the 2011 film Tower Heist

Tower Heist

Tower Heist is a 2011 crime comedy film directed by Brett Ratner and written by Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson based on a story by Bill Collage, Adam Cooper, and Griffin. It was released on November 2, 2011 in the United Kingdom, with a United States release following two days later...

, Bobo in the 1989 version of A Raisin in the Sun

A Raisin in the Sun

A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes...

, Cooper's husband in the 1985 movie Marie

Marie (film)

Marie is a 1985 film starring Sissy Spacek as the real-life Marie Ragghianti, former head of the Tennessee Board of Pardons and Paroles, who was removed from office in 1977 after refusing to release prisoners who had bribed aides to then-Governor Ray Blanton...

, and roles in the films Keane

Keane (film)

Keane is a 2004 American drama film written and directed by Lodge Kerrigan. Set in New York City, it focuses on a mentally disturbed man trying to come to terms with the abduction of his daughter several months earlier and the relationship he develops with a young girl and her mother.The film...

(2004) and If You Could Say It in Words

If You Could Say It in Words

If You Could Say it in Words is a 2008 American romance film film written and directed by Nicholas Gray. It focuses on the relationship between two disparate individuals. The film played at multiple American film festivals in 2008-09...

(2008). In addition to his films, Henderson was a recurring character Omar on the FOX series New Amsterdam

New Amsterdam (TV series)

New Amsterdam is an American television drama, which premiered March 4, 2008 on Fox, and ended after its eighth episode.-Premise and plot:...

, which premiered in early 2008.

Henderson is known mostly for his stage work. Most recently, he portrayed Jim Bono in the Broadway revival of August Wilson

August Wilson

August Wilson was an American playwright whose work included a series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama...

's Fences starring Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington

Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...

 for which Henderson received a Tony nomination as a supporting actor. He also received the Richard Seff Award from Actor's Equity for that performance. Previously, he appeared as Van Helsing

Abraham Van Helsing

Professor Abraham van Helsing is a protagonist from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula.Van Helsing is a Dutch doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the string of letters that follows his name: "M.D., D.Ph., D.Litt., etc." The character is best known as a...

 in the Broadway production of Dracula, the Musical. On Broadway, he has also performed in Drowning Crow, the revival of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a 1982 play - one of the ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle by August Wilson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright - that chronicles the twentieth century African American experience...

, and King Hedley II

King Hedley II

King Hedley II is a play by American playwright August Wilson, the ninth in his ten-part series, The Pittsburgh Cycle. This is the ninth of the plays in Wilson's ten-play cycle, each from a different era...

. Henderson is especially recognized as a veteran performer of August Wilson's ouvre.

Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 work includes creating the role of Turnbo in Jitney

Jitney

Jitney may refer to:* Jitney , written by August Wilson* Atlantic City Jitney Association, an association of operators of minibus service in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA* an archaic name for a nickel...

, for which he won a Drama Desk Award

Drama Desk Award

The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...

. In addition, he appeared in A Raisin in the Sun and Zooman and the Sign. With the LAByrinth Theatre Company, he portrayed Pontius Pilate

Pontius Pilate

Pontius Pilatus , known in the English-speaking world as Pontius Pilate , was the fifth Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, from AD 26–36. He is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized the crucifixion of Jesus...

 in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a 2005 play by American playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis first staged off-Broadway at The Public Theater on 2 March 2005 directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.-Plot summary:...

.

Television work includes Law & Order

Law & Order

Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...

, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...

, Law & Order: Criminal Intent

Law & Order: Criminal Intent

Law & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama...

, Tyler Perry's House of Payne

Tyler Perry's House of Payne

Tyler Perry's House of Payne is an American comedy-drama television series created and produced by playwright, director, and producer Tyler Perry. The show revolves around a multi-generational family living under one roof in Atlanta, Georgia led by patriarch Curtis Payne and his wife Ella...

, and Third Watch

Third Watch

Third Watch is an American television drama series which first aired on NBC from 1999 to 2005 for a total of 132 episodes, broadcast in 6 seasons of 22 episodes each....

.

His work as an actor, director, and educator has been documented in the book, Acting Teachers of America, and also in the Oxford University Press African American National Biography. He currently teaches in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, NY.