Ruben Santiago-Hudson (born Ruben Santiago Jr., November 24, 1956) is an American actor, playwright, and director who has won national awards for his work in all three categories. He has received a Tony Award and three Drama Desk Awards as well as a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award. He won the Humanitas Prize in 2005 and the Lucille Lortel Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2024.
He made his Broadway debut in the musical Jelly's Last Jam (1992). He then acted in the August Wilson play Seven Guitars (1996) for which he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He was Tony-nominated for his roles in his solo show Lackawanna Blues (2022) and the revival Joe Turner's Come and Gone (2026). As a director he was Tony-nominated for his work on the August Wilson revival Jitney (2017).
On television, he portrayed Captain Roy Montgomery in the ABC crime mystery romance series Castle from 2009 to 2011. He has taken recurring roles in Another World (1987–1993), Dear John (1990–1992), Spawn (1997–1999), and Billions (2016–2023). He has also acted in the HBO television films Lackawanna Blues (2005), Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005), and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017).
He made his feature film debut with a small role in the comedy Coming to America (1988) and has since taken supporting roles in the supernatural film The Devil's Advocate (1997), the action thriller Shaft (2000), and the crime drama American Gangster (2007). He portrayed Bayard Rustin in the Ava DuVernay directed historical drama Selma (2013). He served as a writer for the Netflix film adaptation of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) for which he was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
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Early life
Ruben Hudson was born in 1956 in Lackawanna, New York, the son of Alean Hudson and Ruben Santiago, a railroad worker. He later adopted his mother's maiden name as part of his compound surname. His father was Puerto Rican and his mother was African American. He went to Lackawanna High school, earned his bachelor's degree from Binghamton University, his master's degree from Wayne State University and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Buffalo State College and Wayne State University.
Career
Santiago-Hudson appeared on Broadway in Jelly's Last Jam (1992), written by George C. Wolfe. He received the 1996 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in August Wilson's Seven Guitars.
He wrote Lackawanna Blues (2001), an autobiographical play in which he portrayed himself and some twenty different characters from his past, which was produced in New York at the Joseph Papp Theatre in 2001. He adapted it for a highly acclaimed, award-winning 2005 HBO film, in which the parts were played by different people. It won the Humanitas Prize and earned Emmy and Writers Guild of America Award nominations. In 2003, he was the reader in Volume 13 of the HBO film, Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives. The series was narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. He played Mayor Joe Starks in Their Eyes Were Watching God.
On television, he has appeared on the daytime soap operas One Life to Live, Another World and All My Children. His work in primetime series has included The Cosby Mysteries, New York Undercover, NYPD Blue, Touched by an Angel, The West Wing, Third Watch, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and five episodes of Law & Order (which coincidentally starred Lackawanna Blues star S. Epatha Merkerson), among others. He starred as New York City Police Captain Roy Montgomery in the ABC series Castle until his character's death occurred in the third-season finale. In 2007, he starred in a PBS Nova documentary about the life of chemist Percy Lavon Julian.
In November 2011, he appeared on Broadway in Lydia R. Diamond's play Stick Fly. In 2013, Santiago-Hudson won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Director, an Obie Award for Direction, and was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play for his work in the Off-Broadway production of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson.
In 2016, he won the Obie Awards Special Citation for Collaboration for his work on Skeleton Crew with Dominique Morisseau and the Atlantic Theater Company.
Santiago-Hudson narrated a number of audiobooks, including James Patterson's Cross Justice which was recognized by the 2017 Audie Award and AudioFile magazine's Earphones Award.
Personal life
Santiago-Hudson has four children: Broderick Santiago and Ruben Santiago III from previous relationships, and Trey and Lily from his marriage with Jeannie Brittan.
When he came to New York in 1983, he was known as Ruben Santiago. He tried to get a part at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater and was asked if he spoke Spanish, which he does not. When he wanted to work at the Negro Ensemble Company, "they laughed and said, 'We don't have Puerto Ricans.'" So he added his mother's name, Hudson, and eventually won a part in A Soldier's Play at the Ensemble Company.
