Johnny Ray Gill: In Every Form
It’s Black History Month, and we’re sitting down with a friend of the pod, Johnny Ray Gill, who is a magnificent actor and storyteller. Season two of Cross dropped February 11th on Prime, and Johnny Ray as Bobby Trey is layered, dangerous, and deeply human. You can feel the weight of history underneath his performance. Johnny doesn’t just play characters. He builds inner lives that carry memory and consequence.
A UCSD/La Jolla Playhouse MFA graduate, Johnny Ray moves fluidly across television, cinema, and music. You’ve seen him as Kerwin in Rectify, Sam in Underground, Gustav in Braindead, and Sex Henry in Grand Crew, alongside work in Snowfall, True Blood, Chicago P.D., and NCIS. Beyond acting, he’s a writer and director under his banner First Flock Pictures, with award-winning projects like Laying Pipe and a debut rap album, Screenplays, led by the haunting “Green Shoe Music.”
This episode is about story, satire, climate justice, and the responsibility of making art that refuses to be contained
IG & Twitter @JohnnyRayGill
Theatre. Culture. Vibe.
Production Credits:
A production of Outside In Theatre in Highland Park, Los Angeles
Created by Alex Ubokudom & Tobie Windham
Edited by Byron Rogers, Jr.
Recorded & Mixed by Byron Rogers, Jr.
Theme Song by Arlo Sanders
Produced by Brianna Seamster & Jessica Hanna
What is The Frogs?
Alex & Tobie travel to different theater communities in LA to explore what’s happening on the ground. They have conversations with some of the world’s most renowned theater practitioners. Discussing broad topics: theater, film, TV, music, current events—all viewed through the lens of theater and culture. The Frogs will get people excited about the theater by first conquering our city (LA), then the country, and eventually the world—by engaging the community in meaningful conversations about the arts. The Frogs are unapologetically Black, theater nerd culture, mixed with real-world energy. It’s intellectual and ratchet, classy but down-to-earth.