A biography for Omari Hardwickhasn’t been written yet.
“I don't make a big deal out of playing football at UGA to people who have interviewed me.”
“My dad was really complex, and I was raised by that. My mom is really bright - very book bright - and so those things collide... I learned that I could put all of that stuff together in the world of acting, and I could make a dollar at it.”
“Some of the most amazing people I've met in life are cops.”
“I'd say my artistic bent definitely came from my father, who was a trial lawyer. And if you're smart, you know that a trial lawyer isn't that different from an actor. He was a poet as well.”
“Poetry has, in a way, been my bridge to my acting career.”
“If reality shows are so popular, that means their viewers are screaming for more realness.”
“When I think about the person who's been most in my ear, it's Joe Dumars.”
“As an African-American male born with a couple of strikes against you because of your skin color, I think it's very, very important to have some positive role models around, especially male influences.”
“I'm a black Catholic raised in Decatur, Georgia, which was very gang-infested. Then, I went to an all-white private high school and excelled in sports and wrote poetry, then played football at the University of Georgia, minoring in drama.”
“I'm not shutting myself off from kids; I'm remaining open to kids and the energy that they bring.”
“I think the universe just brings people around others they find to be interesting.”
“I was at a ballpark as much as I was in school. I was on a basketball court or football field as much as I was in school, so I definitely was receiving mentorship when it came to coaches, my father, my grandfather, and my uncles.”
“For me, I went from showering at the YMCA in L.A., eating chicken sandwiches and ramen noodles if lucky, and going from couch to couch. I'm a real story. I know the struggle.”
“Know that the tattoos are all significant. They're all extremely insignificant. I can't break each one down, but it's 20 years. The first one was 21 years of age from a football teammate.”
“There were uncles in my life that definitely knew the street life.”
“Shoes make an outfit; they're like rims for a car.”
“Deciding to not attach ourselves to something that doesn't appropriately represent us is extremely powerful.”
“The reality is our story and the way we love and our taste in clothing and everything else. And what we ambitiously feel we can be.”
“So many athletes who have been close to me have been everything to me.”
“Playing a cop goes a long way. I have a lot of friends who are working as actors, and as soon as I started playing military characters or cops, and not the actual criminal that we're chasing on this show, they all said, 'You actually can have a career now.'”