W Earl Brown was born and raised in western Kentucky. Realizing early in life that he had aversion to manual labor, he knew that farming life was not for him. The first theater he ever attended was on his grandparents' front porch, where, in following family tradition, they would entertain themselves after a day's work with songs and stories. He was much better suited to that part of Kentucky farm life rather than the fields and barns.

In high school, Earl was actively involved, and quite successful, in forensic competition where his coach fired a competitive spirit and taught his students the value of hard work and sacrifice. It was during those years, Earl's love of movies blossomed and he first had the dream of working in films; however, at the point in his life such an idea seemed impossible to achieve. The first in his family to go to college, Earl took an acting class on a whim at Murray State University and it was in that class that he found his Calling. He began performing in numerous productions on campus. It was in a production of "That Championship Season" in 1983 that he first had the experience of craft being elevated to art, and due to that, he was hooked.

Earl received his MFA from DePaul University's Theatre School in 1989. After graduation, he performed in numerous plays around Chicago. His first job on a film set was teaching dialect on "Backdraft" (1991). Not long after that, his performance in "A View From the Bridge" at the Steppenwolf Theatre catapulted his career as an actor into television and film. He landed numerous roles and within a couple of years had hit the proverbial glass ceiling. In 1993, he relocated to Los Angeles and started over.

Wes Craven was an early supporter of Earl's; he cast him in "New Nightmare" (1994), "A Vampire in Brooklyn" (1995) and the role of "Kenny" in the classic, "Scream" (1996). Two years after the success of "Scream," Earl played "Warren", Cameron Diaz's mentally challenged brother, in "There's Something About Mary" (1998). Among his many other film credits are the highly regarded films: "Being John Malkovich" (1999), "The Master" (2012), "The Sessions" (2012), "Wild" (2014), and "Black Mass" (2015).

On television, Earl has guest starred in many series, including: "Luck" (2011), "Seinfeld" (1995), "American Horror Story' (2011), "Justified" (2009), "X-Files" (2002), "Six Feet Under" (2001), and "NYPD Blue" (2000 & 2005). Among the TV movies he has been involved with, was the starring role in VH1's "Meatloaf: To Hell and Back" (2000). He played "Tom Carlin" in ABC's highly acclaimed anthology series "American Crime" (2015) and "Teague Dixon" in HBO's "True Detective" (2015). He is probably best known as "Dan Dority" in HBO's "Deadwood" (2003). During that series' second season, the show's creator, David Milch, invited him to join the writing staff. In 2007, Earl earned a WGA nomination for writing on a drama series and a SAG nomination for best drama ensemble acting. Establishing himself on a show as critically lauded as "Deadwood" opened doors for other writing projects, including the Sony release, "Bloodworth" (2011), which Earl wrote and produced.

In addition to his television and film work, Earl co-starred in Sony's "The Last Of Us," 2013 Video Game Of The Year. He also writes music and records with Sacred Cowboys, an LA based Americana band. In 2016, he was cast in the series "Preacher" alongside Dominic Cooper.

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