Geoffrey Owens

Geoffrey Owens is an American actor known for playing Elvin Tibideaux on The Cosby Show, a role he took on in 1985 and kept until the sitcom ended in 1992. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he studied at the High School of Performing Arts and earned a degree from Yale University in 1983, graduating cum laude. His film debut came as Lou in The Paper (1994), and later credits include Play the Game (2009), Impossible Monsters (2019), in which he played a police detective, Fatale (2020) and Hide and Seek (2021). On television he guested on That's So Raven, FlashForward, Lucifer and Elementary, and appeared as himself on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He portrayed Casca in a Shakespeare Theatre Company staging of Julius Caesar and played Daryl in A Merry Little Ex-Mas (2025). Owens founded The Brooklyn Shakespeare Company and has taught acting and Shakespeare at Columbia, Yale and Pace University.