Gary Dourdan seemed to have a promising and successful career when he began playing the role of Warrick Brown in CIS: Crime Scene Investigation. However, he encountered several problems in his life, such as bankruptcy and numerous trials.

As a child and teenager, Gary Dourdan already seemed to have a safe path to Hollywood because he was good at athletics, music and breakdance. Also, his family was one of artists. His mother was a fashion designer and teacher, and his father was an entrepreneur and worked as an agent for jazz musicians.

Gary Dourdan was born in 1966 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and later he and his family moved to Willingboro, a suburb of New Jersey.

The actor said that he really liked living there and always took the bus to Chinatown where he had martial arts lessons. He also discovered Bruce Lee there and went to buy martial arts equipment and pretended to be Bruce Lee.

He later moved to New York City where he worked as a doorman at a rehearsal studio. There he met several New York artists, especially since he lived in the studio’s basement.

Gary played piano, guitar and saxophone so in the 80’s he decided to take on some roles in off-Broadway plays. He was determined to work hard for what he wanted.

Then he met actress and producer Debbie Allen and many doors opened for him.

In the 90’s Gary was invited to play in Janet Jackson’s music videos. He played as her love interest in the music video for the song “Again”. In the years that followed, Gary became known, so he received several roles in various productions and films.

In the 2000’s he was cast as Warrick Brown, a forensic investigator and audio-video analyst in the CSI series: Crime Scene Investigation.

Gary said he was very excited about the opportunity and saw it as a challenge because his life was different from his character’s.

In 2008 his contract was not renewed due to disagreements on both sides, so at the end of season 8 Warrick Brown was shot to death by a Las Vegas PD mole.

It was later reported in the press that Gary had been arrested for illegal possession. It was then alleged that this was the reason CBS did not want to renew his contract.

Children and ex-wife

Gary Dourdan was married to Roshumba Williams in the early 90’s.

Roshumba Williams and Gary Dourdan at New Years event, New York, December 31, 1993

The couple married in 1992, but divorced two years later. The two did not have children together, but the actor has two children from other relationships. He and Jennifer Sutton have a daughter, Nyla, who was born in 1998.

Together with Cynthia Hadden he has a son, Lyric, who was born in 2002. It seems that his son has a passion for music and plays the guitar very well. He goes with his father to various musical events.

 

Gary said that his children are wonderful and that he had no problems with them. He compared with them and said that his mother had to “work” with him, but his children are not at all problematic. He also said that the mothers of the children did a wonderful job in raising the children and he feels very lucky and proud.

 

Brother’s death

Gary also went through many challenges in his life, such as the death of his brother. His brother died after falling from a balcony in Haiti, but authorities said it was a suspicious death and could not figure out how it happened. Darryl Dourdan had traveled to Haiti to do “research on the family lineage”. Gary is still curious to find out what happened then.

Gary said in an interview that he wanted to visit Haiti to investigate the case by himself, but realized that almost 30 years had passed and he would not know where to start the investigation or who to talk to after so many years… Maybe everything should remain a mystery.

He and his brother had a connection, so Gary always says that everything he does in his career is in his brother’s honor.

Bankruptcy

Unfortunately, Gary had several issues with the law. In June 2011, he was arrested after driving his car into parked vehicles. After a few months, he was arrested again due to a conflict with his ex-girlfriend.

Financial problems were also beginning to appear. In August 2012, he filed for bankruptcy. At the time, the actor had just over $ 1.8 million and owned its creditors approximately $ 1.7 million.

According to documents obtained by TMZ, Gary’s assets included $ 200 cash, $ 3k in a bank account, $ 4k in furniture, $ 200 worth of books, $ 1,500 in clothes, $ 500 in watches and a 2006 Dodge Charger worth $ 7,000.

Gary Dourdan in a mug shot, California, US, April 2008

In 2019 Gary completely disappeared from the press, but in 2021 he landed a major role in the action thriller Redemption Day.

According to IMDB, Gary has more movies in the pipeline. I hope that his career will be a successful one in the future and that we will see Gary in several projects because he is a very talented actor.