Richard Gallion is an actor, writer, director, and producer who has worked in film, television and theater.  He is most widely known to have garnered roles in Transformers 4, NBC’S Chicago PD, USA’s Sirens, FOX’s APB and the Award Winning show Empire directed by Lee Daniels, featuring Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard. Richard has also starred in Black Coffee and Nothing Like Thanksgiving, both directed by Mark Harris, and Halfway featuring Quinton Aaron. Some of the other projects he has been a part of have been Black Butterfly, available at Walmart, Redbox, and Netflix; as well as The Good Life.  Gallion is a dedicated Christian and acknowledges that on all his speaking engagements, theater productions, social media, newsletters, and website. “First of all I want to give thanks to my God, who is my Lord and Savior, for without him nothing would be possible.”  Richard Gallion Entertainment provides audiences with performances that change the lives of others by displaying answers to real life situations on stage and film. Richard’s mission is to provide hope and love through the performing arts in excellence, integrity, and the spiritual direction of God.

Richard was born in Chicago on July 8, 1984. He grew up in a single-family household with seven siblings. His mother, Christina Jefferson, taught her children that they could be whatever they wanted to be as long as they stayed focused, worked hard, and put faith in God. When Richard was about 12, he developed a love for basketball and football. Over time he focused more on basketball with hopes of one day becoming a NBA professional player. He played on the varsity teams in high school and college and spent extended hours out of each day working on perfecting his craft. From a very young age Richard displayed the qualities of a hard working success driven individual.  He graduated from Lakeview High School in 2001 and continued his education at Chicago State University. In college he was commended for his skills/talent and invited to play with the Cougars NCAA Division I basketball team. While playing ball at Chicago State, Richard heard about a Nike commercial that was in need of a few basketball players. He jumped at the opportunity not only because it was a paying gig, but it also was an opportunity to star with NBA All-Star Michael Redd. Thousands of basketball players from many different cities, schools, etc. auditioned but only few were chosen. Among them was Richard Gallion. The commercial exposure lead to a photo shoot with Fesup clothing, who later offered Richard the opportunity to be their spokesperson, giving him national exposure.

This led to a job as a model for the Ebony Fashion Fair; the world’s largest touring fashion show. Modeling slowly began to lead to opportunities directly linked to acting in theater productions. Here is where Richard found his true passion and, in addition to acting, soon began directing and writing his own plays.  While his acting career continued to soar, his development as a writer came into full fruition, as Richard made his first co-writing debut in the theater production, Hard Knock Life. Soon after he followed up with his very first stage play Living Without Love, loosely documenting dark moments in my father’s drug infested past. Having the confidence of writing under his belt, his second stage play, Voice of a Child, was his true to life story of the reconciliation between him and his wife.  In his theater productions, Desperate 1 &2, Richard was challenged to write about the many issues of family betrayal, life after incarceration, the misdiagnosis of prescription drugs in children, and much more. Honorably Diss-Charged was an amazing play Richard created to shine a light on the injustices done to US Veterans.  “It talks about life after the war. Most people don’t understand these veterans. It’s so sad that the people who fought to protect our streets are ending up living in them. They put their whole sanity, their life, their family, everything on the line for a country that doesn’t even care about them.”  Richard’s authentic transparency allows his audiences to connect to real life stories and characters, and shows that there is hope after failure. To date, Richard has written/directed/produced and produced six highly acclaimed stage productions, and ghost written/directed for numerous others stage plays, television series, and films. Today, Richard feels blessed: “I know God has blessed me with many gifts, and basketball was a tool to teach me discipline and help develop my many other talents. I know God put me on earth to serve Him, and a part of my calling is to be successful in all of my endeavors. I always thought it would be difficult to see my dreams come to life, but I live by the quote, “difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week.”

Richard and wife Sabrina

Richard describes his primary values as family, integrity and his belief in God. “God is involved in everything we do, especially if we claim him. I tell people in a second, hey, ‘I’m a work in progress. I’m still a filthy mess.’ My past is not the best, but I think I’m pretty straight, level-headed now. And I believe any person who hates someone for their past can get away from me because I have one. It’s unfortunate, but I have one. The way I look at it, there’s no way you can drive a car forward, looking in the rear view mirror.  It’s like, your past is your past. I don’t give a care what you did. It’s about what you’re doing now.”  Our values ultimately determine our choices. The more we grow in God, the more we learn to follow the values He has instilled in us.  Often though, especially in the early stages of our adult walk, we may choose against what we know to be right and then we have to suffer the consequences. “There were some choices that I made because of my own selfishness which hindered my career,” Gallion acknowledges. “I feel like I have stopped myself quite often. And, knowing who I am in Christ, I should know that sometimes I can’t get away with doing some things that others can do. If I make a decision that’s not right, I’m held accountable for that right away.  It can stop my growth. I have to recognize and hold to that.  I’m pretty strong when it comes to keeping my stance on certain things. I’m strong-willed and stubborn. My stubbornness actually helps me sometimes.”

Gallion recognizes that being a Christian does not always mean your path will be easy.  John 16:33 says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you  will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  Gallion elaborates: “If you say you walk with the Lord and things in your life never get a little crazy, then I question your walk.  Robbers don’t break into an empty house. There has to be something in there that is of value for them to break in. It’s the same with the devil.  If he doesn’t bother you once in a while, maybe you’re not being the person God wants you to be. On the other hand, if your house is always getting broken into then and you are always in trouble, maybe there is a lot of heaviness inside you that you need to turn over to God so He can use it for good.”

Like all committed believers, Richard Gallion seeks continued guidance and inspiration to keep him growing on the right track.  “My pastor, Dr. Matthew Stevenson, is an awesome leader, a great man of God. He’s very honorable and very family-oriented, I watch him closely and try to follow him. I’m actually one of his armor bearers. I glean from him a whole lot. I also listen to T.D. Jakes, a lot. I love his wisdom. T.D. Jakes is like a modern-say Solomon.  And I also read and watch Stephen Furtick.  He’s great. His book Crashing the Chatterbox is so good. It really helped me distinguish the voices that would come into my conscious and helped me to distinguish how God speaks to me. I really got to know God and His language. The way you do that is by reading His word. I’ve learned God never describes you by what you are in your present state. He always describes you the way that He made you, and how He saw you. Before you were born, He knew what He was going to do. God calls you to grow and convicts you to turn away from sin, but He doesn’t label you by that sin. The enemy does that. God doesn’t do that. That’s the Pharisees. The Pharisees condemned, Jesus convicted.”

I asked Richard how he defined freedom. “Freedom to me is not having to live under a mask of any sort. If you are who you are in the world and at home, that’s totally freedom to me. But, at the same time, you must be living under the guidelines of Christ. And the reason you have to put a guideline on it because most people think… and it’s not my bashing anyone because, again, I love everyone the same. But, I don’t have a hell to put any one in. But, when most people who are dealing with homosexuality think of the whole freedom thing, they think they are being free by expressing themselves and saying that it’s acceptable. But, I have to put a guideline on it. It’s whatever that is within the guidelines of Christ. Not holding back your falls or your issues or any of that. That’s what I consider freedom.  But there’s responsibility that comes with freedom.  Being responsible is the major part of freedom.”

Like many Christians Richard Gallion traces many of the problems on the United States back to the decision to take God out of public life. “The country started to go haywire when they started to take God out of politics and when they took prayer out of the schools. That’s when the shootings started. The people in key positions in government and education need to go in with a Christ mindset.  Pastors need to stop giving every young, anointed guy a microphone and instead start telling them to go to school and become a politician and have an impact on the government, maybe become the president. The biggest microphone that exists is in the hands of the president. That’s a big voice. It is the tendency of the church and its pastors to put every bright light we have behind a pulpit in a church. We need those bright lights to change our government and invite God back into this world He created.”

Richard Gallion has just finished the pilot episode for his television series called Desperate. “It’s  about how everyone is desperate for something,” he explains. “Whether you’re poor, rich, middle class, whatever race you are, it doesn’t matter. Everyone is desperate for something.  When people realize that I think we can begin to understand and love each other a little more. If we understand that, maybe we can respect where each other’s coming from. Desperation is every-where.  Even the people who have God are desperate for more of God. Think about it.  Even after God split the Red Sea for Moses, Moses still asked God to show him His glory. He had just split the Red Sea, and even after all of that, Moses still said, show me your glory. Everyone has a sense of desperation.”

See the trailer to Desperate below.

https://vimeo.com/286954870

Richard Gallion is someone whose commitment to God is evident in his art, his life and his words.  That’s part of the reason he is a Man of Value.