Ray Shell

Ray Shell is an American actor, singer, author and director who studied acting at Emerson College in Boston and earned a BFA in 1974. Born in Wilson County, North Carolina, he grew up in Brooklyn, and he toured in national companies of Hair and The Me Nobody Knows before taking the title role in Little Willie Jr's Resurrection and traveling with it to London in 1978. There he created Rusty in Starlight Express (1984) and Nomax in Five Guys Named Moe (1990). His screen credits include Shake in The Apple (1980), Jeff Kane in Young Soul Rebels (1991) and Murray in Velvet Goldmine (1998). He wrote the 1993 novel Iced, staged in 1997, and later published Spike Lee: The Eternal Maverick and Feedin' Miranda. He serves as a creative director for the Giant Olive Theatre Company at London's Lion & Unicorn Theatre.