Brian Tyree Henry can make a funny man seem frightened without spoiling the joke. We rate him highly, particularly when he has someone to listen to; endless dialogue is a poor use of his gifts.
Fi1m perspective
In Transformers One (2024), Brian Tyree Henry’s D-16 is a little slow to laugh at his friend’s jokes. He voices the robot as careful and loyal, letting us hear the pride beneath the caution. Josh Cooley’s animated prequel gives him a friendship to work with, and Henry makes it matter even when the destination is predictable. We rate him for that attention to what a character is trying not to show. The last act is mostly noise, but his performance gives us a reason to care about the friends caught up in it.
Atlanta (2016–2022), in which he played Alfred ‘Paper Boi’ Miles, brought him to prominence; film supporting parts followed from 2018. Steve McQueen’s Widows (2018) used him as the menacing crime boss Jamal Manning, while If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) gave him a single scene as parolee Daniel Carty. These were different jobs, both suited to an actor who can suggest a great deal with little screen time. A lead role in Dope Thief (2025) gave him room to develop that vulnerability across a series.
Peter Craig’s series casts Henry as Ray Driscoll, one of two petty criminals posing as DEA agents in Philadelphia. Alongside Wagner Moura as Manny Carvalho, he makes the impersonation funny without suggesting that either man is safe. We laughed at Ray’s impersonation and then felt anxious for him, because Henry never lets the humour hide how vulnerable he is. Their friendship feels established rather than explained, which helps when the plotting becomes unnecessarily tangled. Eight episodes give the complications more space than they deserve, but the pair remain worth returning to.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) is a poorer use of him. As podcaster Bernie Hayes, Henry talks constantly and repeats himself; Simon Barrett, Jeremy Slater and Terry Rossio’s script gives him little chance to pause. Editor Josh Schaeffer cuts briskly away from the humans, and the film is more enjoyable when it stays with the apes. Henry cannot make all that explanation worth hearing, and we would not recommend the film for him. Start with Dope Thief, allowing for the tangled plot and leaving some space between episodes.
Biography
Brian Tyree Henry is an American actor born on 31 March 1982 in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He first gained prominence for his role as Alfred "Paper Boi" Miles in the FX series Atlanta (2016–2022), earning a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
His film work includes supporting roles in Widows (2018), If Beale Street Could Talk (2018), Joker (2019), Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), Eternals (2021) as Phastos, Bullet Train (2022) and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) as Bernie Hayes. He voiced Jefferson Davis in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and Jeff Morales in its sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), and D-16/Megatron in Transformers One (2024). He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Causeway (2022).
On stage, Henry appeared in the original Broadway cast of The Book of Mormon (2011) and received a Tony Award nomination for the 2018 Broadway revival of Lobby Hero. He stars as Ray Driscoll in the 2025 Apple TV+ series Dope Thief.
