TOBIAS TRUVILLION | Re-styling himself from ladies’ man to activist

Tobias Truvillion, model-turned-actor-turned-activist
Tobias Truvillion, model-turned-actor-turned-activist
Tobias Truvillion, model-turned-actor-turned-activist

NEW YORK CITY |  Who is Tobias Truvillion? What is his interest in hosting a gala fundraiser for the medical care of survivors of head injury and traumatic brain injury. Has he not been your usual soap-opera eye candy?

If you are curious to know, dine with Tobias Truvillion at the Nubian Union’s Legend Awards/Chasing Stars Holiday Gala Dinner.  The hunky actor is the gala’s emcee. You may get answers direct from the horse’s mouth.

The event takes place Monday, November 23rd 6:30pm at the Alger House in Greenwich Village. Purchase $135.00 tickets on Eventbrite.

Organized by two Black nonprofits in NY/NJ, the Legend Award Gala Dinner is a community-led effort to raise funds to help give medical and psychiatric care to young minority men with head injuries and TBI (traumatic brain injury).  Proceeds of the fund will go toward The Anthony Fund (nubianunion.net) whose aim is to level the playing field so that those who are economically challenged have the same medical and psychiatric care as wealthier patients.

It turns out that Truvillion’s journey has been to parlay his actor’s journey into doing good deeds. Consider this biographical story.

Hunk City |  From model to actor

Tobias Truvillion is an award-winning actor from Queens, New York. Named a 2012 Essence magazine “Eye Candy of the Week” selection, Tobias later on turned himself into a philanthropist, youth advocate, teacher and model.

Here is how it all began: In 2013, Truvillion accepted a spokesmodel position with Gulder Nigerian beer, and currently stars in an international commercial for the renowned brand.  Truvillion commandeered his latest guest-starring role as a special agent on USA Network’s “White Collar” crime series (Season 5, Episode 4, “Quantico Closure”).

In January 2014, Truvillion appeared as a guest star in award-winning actress Gabrielle Union’s BET comedy series “Being Mary Jane.”

Truvillion began captivating the public eye when he signed with Ford Models early on. As a top model, for many years he was said to have “demonstrated style, a poised delivery, sophistication and class on the runway” (according to his promoters, of course.) He the became the face of high-profile print and commercial campaigns (“Got Milk?,” Enyce, “Jordan 23″ and Heineken’s “The Double Nod”).

Tobias Truvillion
He’s got theater creds

Compelled to pursue his penchant for acting, in 1999, under the auspices of his mentor and acting coach, Penwah, Tobias enrolled in The National Black Theater of Harlem. In 2001, he experienced a major breakthrough when he was honored with a prestigious AUDELCO Award for his tireless dedication to his craft.

In 2006, he joined the cast of ABC’s hit soap “One Life to Live.” His cunning role as Vincent Jones, a street savvy ladies’ man, earned him a 2008 NAACP Image Award nomination for “Outstanding Actor in a Daytime Drama Series.” Additionally, Truvillion dominated pivotal roles in films such as director Antwan Fuqua’s “Brooklyn’s Finest” (Millennium Films), acting alongside Will Smith in the box office record-breaking romantic comedy “Hitch” (Overbrook Entertainment/Columbia Pictures), and “Paid in Full” (Dimension Films).

In the popular Russell Costanzo-directed independent feature film, The Tested (Shoebox Films), Truvillion fell nothing short of spectacular in his portrayal of James, a ruthless leader of the treacherous Brooklyn-based “Black Knights” gang. (“The Tested” is now streaming on Netflix.) And in the third season of the riveting CBS police series “Blue Bloods,” he showcased his topnotch talent alongside Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlberg in his recurring role as “Uncle Otto.”

Never one to stray from his stage roots, Truvillion was enthralled to earn a role in acclaimed writer/director Layon Gray’s NAACP Award-winning play Black Angels Over Tuskegee.” In 2012,Truvillion landed a role in the Pulitzer Prize–winning play “Topdog/Underdog,” written and directed by Suzan Lori Parks.

Before the New Year, Tobias completed filming his lead as Monti, a rambunctious U.S. Army Soldier in the action-packed feature film Cigarette Soup (2014). The movie centers on a young journalist who gets a very rare and highly intense opportunity to become embedded with a small band of US soldiers during Afghanistan war combat in 2006.

Social activism

He is an avid supporter of Friends of The Congo, a global non-profit organization whose mission is to promote peace, lasting change, and bring awareness to the not often publicized phenomenal artistic culture in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire.

Tobias Truvillion in Essence magazine

Since 2009, Truvillion has consistently worked with The Marion Bolden Center, in Newark, New Jersey. Despite the region’s often-negative public perception, he has been at the forefront of a successful effort to shed light on the community’s artistic diversity and burgeoning young talent. He helped implement a media and arts fused program to teach TV production, filmmaking, acting, and life essentials.

Truvillion assisted in establishing a partnership with Drew University, in which his students retreat from inner-city life and live on the school’s Madison, New Jersey campus for three weeks throughout the summer.

Every year, before departing from the university, his students produce and perform a play, followed by a graduation ceremony honoring their positive achievements. Although Tobias’ students often admit how much he inspires them, he says his students inspire him much more.

 

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