Work

Bryonn Bain is an artist, activist, actor, hip-hop theater innovator, and spoken word poetry champion. A Tony-nominated theater maker and Emmy-winning producer, Bain hosted BET's current-affairs talk show My Two Cents for five seasons alongside Tony Award winner Staceyann Chin. Described by Cornel West as an artist who "...speaks his truth with a power we desperately need to hear," his work lives at the intersection of art and justice — using hip-hop, spoken word, theater, and education to build literacy, presence, and connection inside and beyond the prison system.

Music

Hip-hop, spoken word, blues, and calypso — written and performed across three continents.

His album-length releases include: Problem Child (2005)and Don't Be Scared (2008). Bryonn has opened for Common, J. Cole, RUN DMC, Sonia Sanchez and Amiri Baraka.

Tracks available online include:

Apple Music
Spotify

Theater & Live Performance

A groundbreaking multimedia production created by Bryonn Bain. Exposing the unresolved contradictions between America's prison system and its democratic ideals, Lyrics From Lockdown tells the story of Bain's wrongful imprisonment while studying law at Harvard and weaves together the voices of more than forty characters into a one-man tour de force. 

Fusing hip hop, spoken word, R&B, calypso, and classical music, Lyrics tells a provocative story of racial profiling and wrongful incarceration in a nation that imprisons more people than any other in the world.

Executive produced by Gina and Harry Belafonte, Ron Simons, Delroy Lindo and Rob Reiner.

“One man. 40 characters. Two unbelievable stories of imprisonment.”

Tours

  • World premiere: National Black Theatre, Harlem (2013)

  • The Actors' Gang Theater, Los Angeles (2017) — record-breaking sold-out run

  • Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (2019) — Hip Hop Culture Season

  • Apollo Theater, New York City (2022) — livestreamed to prisons worldwide

  • LA Philharmonic at the Skirball Cultural Center (2022)

  • Lincoln Center (2024)

  • Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (2025)

  • Carnegie Hall (2026)

Awards

  • LA Weekly "Best Solo Performance" (2018)

  • NAACP "Best Solo Performance" (2019)

Broadway

A Tony-nominated theater maker, Bryonn first produced Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf at the Apollo Theater as a college student, and joined the producing team of its Broadway revival over 25 years later.

TED Talks

  • TEDx Sing Sing Prison

  • TED Talk at Ironwood Prison

Visit Lyrics From Lockdown

Film

  • Pig Hunt — starring role, last film directed by Academy Award-winner James Isaac

  • Ol' Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys — streaming on Hulu and Showtime

  • 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre — Official Selection, SXSW Film Festival

  • In the Hour of Chaos — with Public Enemy's Chuck D

  • Chapter and Verse — executive produced by Antoine Fuqua

  • Windows on the World — directed by Michael Olmos

Film & Television

Bryonn's screen work spans SXSW features, an Emmy-winning broadcast, and the Hulu/Showtime documentary on Wu-Tang star Ol’ Dirty Bastard. He has appeared opposite Academy Award winners and collaborated with directors across the industry.

Television

Full Filmography on IMDB

Teaching & Prison Education

Bryonn founded the UCLA Prison Education Program in 2015 and has developed arts-based college courses linked to Columbia University, NYU, The New School and Long Island University in prisons across more than 25 states. He has taught for over a decade at Rikers Island and was a Visiting Lecturer in the Dramatic Arts at Harvard University, a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University's Center for Justice and School of Law and an Artist/Scholar-in-Residence at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge

He is a Professor of African American Studies, World Arts and Cultures / Dance, and Law at UCLA.

He co-founded the Center for Justice at UCLA in 2022, which launched with a three-day convening at the Skirball Cultural Center alongside the LA Philharmonic.

His recent prison education work has extended to Ghana, in partnership with the Ghana Prisons Service and the Pan-African Writers Association.

Workshops & Lectures

Bryonn has brought standing ovations to sold-out venues at more than 300+ colleges, prisons, and festivals on three continents.

United States

  • Apollo Theater (NYC), Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center

  • The Public Theater (NYC), National Black Theatre (Harlem)

  • NJPAC (Newark)

  • Rikers Island, Sing Sing, Ironwood State Prison, Marion Prison (Ohio)

  • UCLA and Harvard

International

  • Festival de Liège (Belgium)

  • M-1 Theater Festival (Singapore)

  • Universidad de las Américas (México)

  • Muteesa Royal University (Uganda)

  • Ghana Prisons Service

  • Oxford and Cambridge

Books

Author of five books spanning poetry, race and prison in America, hip-hop, justice, and a trilingual children's book.

The Prophet Returns (2011) — A hip-hop generation remix of Gibran's classic, edited by Tony Award winner Suheir Hammad.

The Ugly Side of Beautiful: Rethinking Race and Prison in America (2012, Third World Press) — Foreword by Mumia Abu-Jamal, introduction by Lani Guinier.

Rebel Speak: A Justice Movement Mixtape (2022, UC Press) — California Series in Hip Hop Studies, Volume 2. Foreword by Angela Davis.

Fish & Bread / Pescado y Pan(2015) — A bilingual children's book, illustrated by his son Indigo Bain and godson Siddhartha Ullah.

Temple Worship (2025) — A trilingual children's book, illustrated by his sons Kahlil Immanuel Bain and Idries Krishna Bain.

Books

In the Press

Profiles & Features