Glynn Russell Turman is an American actor, writer, director, and producer. Turman is known for his roles as Lew Miles on the prime-time soap opera Peyton Place (1968–1969), high school student Leroy "Preach" Jackson in the 1975 coming-of-age film Cooley High, math professor and retired Army colonel Bradford Taylor on the NBC sitcom A Different World (1988–93), and Baltimore mayor Clarence Royce on the HBO drama series The Wire. He also portrayed Jeremiah Kaan on the Showtime series House of Lies.

Turman had his first prominent acting role at the age of 12 as Travis Younger in the original Broadway production of Lorraine Hansberry's classic A Raisin in the Sun, opposite Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Ivan Dixon, Louis Gossett Jr., Lonne Elder III, John Fiedler and Diana Sands. After graduating high school, he apprenticed in regional and repertory companies throughout the US, including Tyrone Guthrie's Repertory Theatre, in which he performed in late 1960s productions of Good Boys, Harper's Ferry, The Visit, and The House of Atreus. He made his Los Angeles stage debut in William Hanley’s Slow Dance on the Killing Ground. A 1974 performance in The Wine Sellers earned him a Los Angeles Critics Award nomination and a Dramalogue Award. The play was also produced on Broadway as What The Wine Sellers Buy. He won his first NAACP Image Award for his work in the play Eyes of the American.

Turman received his second NAACP Image award for directing of Deadwood Dick at the Inner City Cultural Center. On television, he has directed episodes of The Parent 'Hood, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, A Different World, and The Wayans Bros.

Turman began his film career in the 1970s with blaxploitation flicks including Five on the Black Hand Side (1973), Thomasine & Bushrod (1974) and Together Brothers (1974), then progressed to roles in Cooley High (1975), plus The River Niger (1976), J. D.'s Revenge (1976) and A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich (1978). TV movies included Carter's Army, the prestigious Centennial, Attica, and Minstrel Man, for which he won his third NAACP Image Award.

Turman appeared in TV movies Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad in 1994, Buffalo Soldiers, and Freedom Song. More notable films include Penitentiary II (1982), Gremlins (1984), Deep Cover (1992), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), Men of Honor (2000), Sahara (2005), Kings of the Evening (2007), Burlesque (2010) and Super 8 (2011). In 2004, he joined the HBO series The Wire portraying the recurring role of Mayor Clarence Royce, becoming a full-time regular in 2006. His portrayal of Mayor Royce earned him an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2007.

Since The Wire, Turman guest-starred as a patient in the Scrubs episode "My Last Words". Turman's other television appearances include Hawaii Five-O (as Harley Dartson, 1973, "Tricks Are Not Treats"), the Twilight Zone segment "Paladin of the Lost Hour" (co-starring Danny Kaye with a script by Harlan Ellison), Matlock, Millennium, and the sitcom All of Us. In 2008, he won a Primetime Emmy award for his guest appearance on the HBO series In Treatment. He appeared in the ABC series Detroit 1-8-7. He has performed and produced a one-man show, Movin' Man, about his life.

Turman auditioned for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars.  In 2012, he began appearing in House of Lies on Showtime as the father of the characters played by Don Cheadle and Larenz Tate. In 2016, he appeared in the Oprah Winfrey Network TV show Queen Sugar in which he played the father, Ernest Bordelon.

In 2017, Turman was cast as Nate Lahey Sr. in 10 episodes in seasons 4 and 5 of the ABC drama How to Get Away With Murder. His character is the imprisoned father of Nate Lahey (Billy Brown), a former police officer, detective and lover to series star Annalise Keating (Viola Davis). In 2018, Turman appeared on the legal drama Suits as Vic.

Turman is set to appear in the ABC limited series Women of the Movement in 2021, playing Mose Wright, Emmett Till's great-uncle.

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