Time at Lehigh
Riley came to Lehigh as a football-playing accountant, but in the spring semester of his first year, he took an acting class with Kashi Johnson, professor and chair of the Department of Theatre. That semester the department sought Black actors for its production of A Raisin in the Sun. Riley was asked to audition but refused. After several pleas, he finally agreed out of a sense of obligation to the Black community on campus. He was cast in the lead role.
“I thought it was a mistake,” he says. “But others believed in the talent they saw in me more than I first saw in myself.” Soon after that first performance, he hung up his cleats and powered down his calculator. Theatre became his focus — in roles both on stage and in public. Many remember him as Wave Man. Wearing ribbons on his biceps and a pompom on his head, he was a fixture at home football games and inspired spectators in the stands to do the wave.
For a stage production he directed and starred in, he stood on campus in costume as a character from I’m Not Rappaport and encouraged people to attend the show. With Johnson, he co-wrote a play called Untold Truths, and together they staged it at Touchstone Theatre in Southside Bethlehem. The story weaved together monologues that explored what it meant to be a person of color at a predominantly white institution. He played 14 roles while Johnson played 12.
“Without Lehigh, I wouldn’t have this career,” he says. “I thank Kashi for her guidance in my bio in every playbill.”
After Lehigh
He earned his MFA in acting from Ohio University. Then auditioning became his job. “Very seldom are you just offered a role, so getting one feels like vacation compared to the work of auditioning,” he says.
He’s had roles on stage, in television, and on the big screen and lived in New York City, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. He landed some stable television roles with a three-year stint on Hit the Floor and for five years on a reboot of Dynasty. He was cast in the Broadway premiere of Lombardi and had a role in the Bourne film series.
Career Highlight
“Working alongside James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, Terrence Howard, Anika Noni Rose, and Giancarlo Esposito in the 2008 Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” he says. When Howard stepped away from his role in the show, Riley, as his understudy, stepped in.
Advice to your younger self
“This is a noble profession that helps put smiles on people’s faces,” he says. “And every job you get makes you a better professional. The more people you understand, the more you can expand the roles you play.”
What’s next?
He has work that will take him from Budapest to central New Jersey with parts on episodes of two CBS series: FBI: International and True Lies. He then films a thriller and a BET Christmas movie. He is also partnering with Ambassador Arts Academy for a youth documentary filmmaking camp.
“I work in fiction all day long, so it is fun to read and watch non-fiction,” he says. “It helps feed my mind because when you are in front of the camera, only you can get you into a character, not the sets, costumes, or your scene partner.”
Spotlight Recipient
Robert Riley '03
Actor; Theater