Biography

Lester Speight is a film and television actor best known for his portrayal of Terry Tate: Office Linebacker in a series of Reebok commercials that first aired during Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003. The spots feature Speight, a former All-American Football player himself, as a linebacker charged with the no-holds barred enforcement of office policies. The commercials achieved much critical acclaim and were ranked the most watched of the Super Bowl by The Hollywood Reporter. The popular character recently made a return appearance in a series of ads campaign in support of voting. Amongst the Office Linebacker's new tackles included former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

As determined and hardworking on screen as a linebacker is on the field, Speight has appeared with such stars as Eddie Murphy, Damon Wayans, Anthony Anderson, and even Optimus Prime. His television work includes a recurring role on the ABC series "My Wife and Kids," as well as guest starring appearance on "Prison Break," "Bones," and "Cold Case." On the silver screen he has appeared in hit films such as "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," "Norbit," and "Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay."

Aside from Terry Tate however, Speight is probably most recognized by fans of the Gears of War video game series for the XBOX 360. Speight won the G-Phoria award for Best Voiceover in 2007 by the G4 Network for his performance as Augustus Cole (AKA Cole Train), a character that was modeled after Speight and includes subtle allusions to the Office Linebacker.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Lester Speight

Speight hails from Baltimore, MD, has been defending one thing or another most of his life. Lester's early life was challenging as he struggled with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) & ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). This deficit challenged him with his teachers, peers and in school classroom. Lester had to learn discipline and behavior to re-focus his energy to become an astounding student and athlete. He used this energy to succeed in sports. Before reaching his teens, Speight and his older sister Leslie were forced to sing in their granddaddy's Baptist Church, the late Rev. Thomas Hughes, by their self-taught piano playing mother, Mrs. Gussie B. Hughes-Speight. The vocal trio group was known as the "Speight Specials." who also sang in and around Baltimore City. Speight was inducted at Old Mill High School Hall of Fame in Millersville, Maryland, as a three-sport standout for Football (All-American), Basketball (All-County), and Track & Field (All-American) in 1996.

During his college years, Speight was a Division I All-American Linebacker for Morgan State University and All-American Track and Field. He majored in communications and minored in Theatre. Speight worked in small productions in and around Baltimore City in the mid 1980's. Speight dropped his Theatre classes in order to not be poked fun of by his football teammates. Speight later went on to sign with the Baltimore Stars of the USFL. His passion and desire for acting, performing, and entertaining later prevailed when he landed his first role on the film of Robert Townsend's, "Meteor Man" as a background actor in 1991.

By the mid 1990s, Lester turned a corner from Entrepreneurship to returning back into the TV and Film industry, and studying with top-notch acting coach, Michael Mack at the "Fearless Acting Workshop" in Washington, D.C., landing him his first TV appearance as a guest star on the hit TV shows, "Homicide: Life on the Street," HBO "The Corner," "The Replacements with Keanue Reeves, "Hallow Man" starring Kevin Bacon, and Oliver Stone's "Any Given Sunday," alongside Oscar-winner AL Pacino. Speight achieved all of this before touching ground in Hollywood.

Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Lester hit the ground running by landing roles in a variety of television shows, like, "Walker, Texas Ranger" "18 Wheels of Justice," "Ladies Man," "Three Sisters," "That's My Bush," "Arli$$", "The Young and the Restless", "NYPD Blue" and "Malcolm in the Middle" to name a few. Early on, his feature films included, "Cradle 2 the Grave," and "Malibu's Most Wanted, "Thirteen Moons" with Steve Buscemi, "Who's your Caddy," and "Bachelor Party Vegas."

Since then, with a body of work that spans over two decades, the opportunity came up for Speight to play "Hardcore Eddie" in Paramount Studio's, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" or TF3, directed by Michael Bay, executive producer Steven Spielberg. TF3 went on to be the box office juggernaut that it is. TF3: "Dark of the Moon" has now surpassed "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" to become the fourth highest grossing movie of all-times grossing worldwide over $1 billion. Lester kicked off 2009 with 5 major movie roles including "Something Like a Business" starred opposite Kevin Hart, "Peep World" and WWE "Knucklehead" 2010, he starred opposite Dwayne Johnson in the role of 'Baphomet' in the thrill feature, "Faster". But Speight's breakout role that he is most known for is the Reebok Super Bowl commercial as the hard-hitting office linebacker Terry Tate, the overly aggressive employee who makes it his job to keep office employees in order. To date, that commercial is still the number #1 rated Super Bowl spot of all-time by "Sports Illustrated" who feature Speight in a February 2013 Super Bowl Special Edition "The 8 Debate Greatest Super Bowl Commercial Terry Tate, Office Linebacker Reebok 2003 voted #1, "you know you need a cover sheet on your TPS reports Richard." Tate bellows. "That ain't new, baby! Soon after Speight turned a guest starring spot into two seasons, as 'Calvin' on "My Wife and Kids", starring opposite Damon Wayans. His recent TV and film credits have included appearances on "Prison Break", "Numb3rs", and "Bones", He also landed a lead role in the 2007 "Norbit" starring opposite Eddie Murphy as 'Blue Lattimore' one of Rasputia's three brothers. Then came "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" and "Finding Amada". Fans can catch Speight in the role of 'Hugh' on Warner Brothers webisode, "Rockville CA."

If Speight's acting career isn't enough to keep him busy, he has also taken on the project as the voice of 'Augustus Cole' in Xbox 360 video games, "Gears of War 1" and "Gears of War 2". In 2007, he won the G-Phoria Award for Best Voice Over Actor. Speight follow "Gears of War 3 success by launching his 4th installment released "Gears of War: Judgment in 2013." The entire franchise broke $1 billion in lifetime sales. All four games feature Lester's outstanding voice-over acting. By the next two years Lester was cast in several Independent films, "Ambushed," "Call Me King," and the highly anticipated Marvel's "One shot: All Hail the King, opposite Oscar-winner Ben Kinsley. His most recent role was portraying the life of Marion "Mad Dawg" Casey, for UP Network's "My Dad's A Soccer Mom."

To Lester's ever growing body of work, he now wears the hat of executive producer, with two smash hit short films, "Police Guys" winners of Action on Film International Film Festival USA, which Lester was nominated AOF/WAB Award: 'Best Villain.' "Police Guys" also won for Outstanding Cast Performance AOF.

Definitely a force to be reckoned with, Lester is now conquering the comedy world with his style of stand-up comedy. One could say he is succeeding and he's doing it with style, grace and not to mention size, while executive producing his upcoming film project "Blazing Four" coming in 2015.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Lester Speight