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Anthony Mackie, who was classically trained at the Juilliard School of Drama, is a great and talented young actor who is able to capture a plethora of characters.

Mackie was discovered after receiving rave reviews while playing Tupac Shakur in the off-Broadway show Up Against the Wind. Immed - iately following that show, Mackie made an auspicious film debut as Eminem's nemesis, Papa Doc, in Curtis Hanson's 8 Mile. His performance caught the attention of Spike Lee, who subsequently cast Mackie in the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival Masters Program selection Sucker Free City and She Hate Me. He also appeared in Clint Eastwood's Academy Award-winning Million Dollar Baby, opposite Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman and Eastwood; in Jonathan Demme's The Manchurian Candidate, alongside Denzel Washington and Liev Schreiber; and in the comedy The Man, starring Samuel L. Jackson.

Mackie earned Independent Spirit Award and Gotham Award nominations for his performance in Rodney Evans' Brother to Brother, which won the 2004 Special Dramatic Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards. In 2005, he appeared opposite David Strathairn, Timothy Hutton and Leelee Sobieski in Heavens Fall, an independent feature based on the historic Scottsboro Boys trials, which premiered at the 2006 SXSW Film Festival in Austin.

In 2006, Mackie had five features on movie screens. In addition to We Are Marshall, he starred in Half Nelson, with Ryan Gosling, which was adapted from director Ryan Fleck's Sundance-winning short Gowanus, Brooklyn; in Preston A. Whitmore's Crossover; in Frank E. Flowers ensemble crime drama Haven, opposite Orlando Bloom and Bill Paxton; and in the film adaptation of Richard Price's Freedomland, starring Samuel L. Jackson.

Throughout his film career, Mackie has been seen in several theatrical performances both on and off- Broadway. Mackie made his Broadway debut as the stuttering nephew, Sylvester, alongside Whoopi Goldberg, in August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. He was next seen as the lead in Regina King's modern retelling of Anton Chekov's The Seagull; starred in Stephen Belber's McReele, for the Roundabout Theatre Company; and starred in the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Soldier's Play in a role made famous by Denzel Washington 20 years prior. In 2008, Mackie was part of the production of August Wilson's 20th Century: The Kennedy Center, in which the cast performed stage readings of all 10 plays in August Wilson's cycle. Mackie participated in three of the 10 shows.

In 2009, Mackie was seen as Sgt. JT Sanborn in Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, a film that not only earned Mackie a Film Independent Spirit Award nomination but also earned Academy Awards for Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Achievement in Directing, Best Writing (Original Screenplay) and three other nods. The year 2009 also saw Mackie revisit the role of Tupac Shakur in Fox Searchlight's Notorious B.I.G. biopic Notorious, and he also starred as Maj. William Bowman in the DreamWorks film Eagle Eye.

In 2010, Mackie returned to Broadway and starred in Martin McDonagh's latest creation, A Behanding in Spokane. He also reunited with Kerry Washington in the drama Night Catches Us, which was released by Magnolia Pictures on December 3, 2010.

Mackie recently wrapped filming the Disney/ DreamWorks production Real Steel, with Hugh Jackman. The film is set for release on November 18, 2011. Mackie is currently filming the Summit Entertainment feature Man on a Ledge, with Sam Worthington and Elizabeth Banks, in New York City.