Damian Thompson - A Jamaican-Born Actor Who Shares How Stuttering Led Him Into Acting

Communication and interacting with each other through words is really at the heart of what it means to connect and relate to other people. This is even more clear as actors and writers in the way that we tell stories and share experiences. Clear and understandable communication is a vital part of the performing arts. We do this through dance, visual media, physical gestures, and other ways, but most importantly though language. 

For Damian Thompson, this of course has been an essential part of his career, from Shakespeare productions like MacBeth and King Lear, to contemporary plays like Angels in America and Little Rock. He even wrote and starred in his own short film called Black?

But it hasn’t always been easy for him to communicate verbally , especially in auditions and cold readings. As a young child he suffered from a speech disorder that affects approximately 3 million Americans speakers, and that is stuttering. 

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And so in today’s conversation we talk about things that Damian has had to overcome. We even get into the importance of not only diverse but accurate representation within the arts. But we start of with Damian sharing how his stuttering and Martin Luther King‘s “I Have a Dream" speech eventually led him into theater…with a little help for Dawson’s Creek. 

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Why I’ll Never Make It is a Top 15 Theater Podcast on Feedspot, and is also a part of Helium Radio Network and a member of the Broadway Makers Alliance. 

Music in the episode by Hyson is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.