Actor, guitarist, singer/songwriter, producer, soulman. San Francisco native Martin Luther McCoy refuses to confine himself to any one creative pursuit. An essential catalyst on the Bay Area’s fertile 1990s neo-soul scene, he continues to serve as a conduit for socially conscious music. On the cusp of releasing his fourth full-length studio album, a self-titled LP focusing on original material, Martin Luther also tours as lead singer with the interdisciplinary alt-art-rock performance group Moon Medicin, a project led by keyboardist and internationally acclaimed visual artist Sanford Biggers. In some circles Martin Luther is best known for his work with the seminal hip hop collective The Roots. Many others discovered himthrough his incendiary performance starring inJulie Taymor’s 2007 film Across the Universe. He’s performed with Dave Matthews, Jill Scott, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and many other marquee acts. He was recently cast in the role of Musician, a griot sage, in Yale Repertory Theatre/ American Conservatory Theatre’s production of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks’ Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3). If there’s one thread connecting all of Martin Luther’s endeavors it’s his grounding in the verdant soil of African-American culture, a soul-steeped presence that leaps off of stages, screens, and bandstands.

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