Lester Speight
Three careers, in order: American football, professional wrestling, and then acting. Lester Speight, also known as Rasta, arrived on screen with a body built by the first two, and the industry has been casting that body ever since.
The two things he is most famous for are not among the credits listed here. He played Terry Tate, Office Linebacker, in a series of Reebok commercials that debuted during Super Bowl XXXVII, an advertising campaign that outlived most of the films released that year. He also voiced Augustus Cole across the Gears of War games, where the performance is loud, joyful and much more precisely judged than the character's reputation suggests. Between them, they are the work he will be remembered for.
The film record is a different story, and reading the character names in order tells it faster than any summary: Chambers's Club Doorman in Cradle 2 the Grave, Gold Tooth in Bachelor Party Vegas, Hardcore Inmate in Who's Your Caddy?, Redrum in Knucklehead, Scary Bouncer in Speech & Debate, Wrestler on Ladies Man. The casting is not subtle. The larger parts are Blue Latimore in Norbit, Eddie in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Hovis Nixon in Faster, Wizdom in Peep World, Herman in Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King and Vincent in 13 Moons.
There is a real comic performer in there, visible whenever anyone lets him talk. It is telling that the two roles that gave him the most room were a commercial and a video game, both of which were written for a voice rather than a silhouette.
Movies (11)
TV (1)
Where to start with Lester Speight
Almost nobody arrives here through the films, so be honest about it: the Gears of War games and the Terry Tate commercials are the work, and neither is among the credits listed here. Track them down first.
Of what is here, Norbit gives him the most screen time and the broadest register, which is either a recommendation or a warning depending on your tolerance. Faster is the best film on the list, a lean revenge picture that uses him as an unsettling presence rather than a joke.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon is the biggest production he has been part of, and his role in it is small. Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King is a short film that is smarter than several of the features around it.
The rest, from Knucklehead to Bachelor Party Vegas to Cradle 2 the Grave, is bit part work. Watch it for the pattern, not the films.