Each week, millions watch NBC’s weepy drama This Is Us. Through both present day shots and flashbacks, the series follows the life of the Pearson family: matriarch Rebecca; triplets Kate, Randall, and Kevin; and their complicated father, Jack. This Is Us has become the definition of a hit, drawing nearly 11 million viewers in its season two midseason finale last month.
And some St. Louisans might not know that a major star of the series reps their hometown.
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Sterling K. Brown, who plays adult Randall, is a St. Louis native and has been nominated for a multitude of awards for his performance on This Is Us. (Just this morning, he was nominated for his second Screen Actors Guild Award for his work as Randall.) This year, he took home a television actor’s highest honor: a Primetime Emmy Award. His achievement marked the first time an African-American man has won a lead acting award in 19 years.
Brown, who grew up in Olivette and graduated from MICDS, recently took time off from his hit show to lend a hand to local tourism guide Explore St. Louis. He filmed four commercials (two of which can be viewed here and here) for the organization this fall, and in a behind-the-scene video, he touts his hometown and the Midwest.
“People overlook the Midwest, that’s what happens,” Brown says, adding: “The ‘Lou represents. I feel like there’s so much of the city that I have yet to explore. We’ve got music, we got food, we have quality human beings that come through this place. And I couldn’t be prouder to call this my home.”
Explore St. Louis’ chief marketing officer Brian Hall, who worked on the campaign with local ad agency H&L Partners, says Brown immediately agreed to be a part of the project and was “delighted” to do it. He even refused compensation, Hall says, and instead asked that the money be donated to St. Louis youth center Mathews-Dickey Boys & Girls Club.
“Sterling was honored [to do the campaign] and wanted to give back to the community,” Hall says. “He knows St. Louis is an outstanding place to live.”
So what was it like to work with him on set?
“If you know his character, Randall, on This Is Us,” Hall says, “he was every bit as generous and kind and warm. As people would come in to the studio to watch, he would come over and shake their hand, greet them, and have some fun conversation with them about their experience watching the show.” Hall adds, “He was such a pro, which wasn’t surprising. He nailed everything within a take or two and added his own signature to it. He made the spots come to life.”
Hall says Brown also invited some of his family and friends to watch him film. In the behind-the-scenes video, Brown reveals that his four siblings still live in the area, as do his aunts and first cousins. “They love St. Louis. It’s their home,” Brown says.
Brown’s acting career began at age 14 when he and his best friend performed in a rendition of Godspell. “During one of the standing ovations that we got for the play, my best friend and I leaned over to each other, and we’re like, ‘We gotta keep doing this, man.’”
And that he did. Along with his award-winning work on This Is Us, Brown also proved to be a scene-stealer as Christopher Darden in FX’s series The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, for which he won an Emmy in the outstanding supporting actor in a limited series category.
If those accolades are any indication, we’re certain there’s no stopping Brown. And we couldn’t be prouder to call him an ambassador of St. Louis.
