Here’s Why We’re Currently Swooning Over New Leading Man Tian Richards

Written by Devin Randall on February 11, 2021

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Actor Tian Richards is the new man of the hour. Last week it was announced that he would play the titular character in the upcoming Nancy Drew spinoff Tom Swift. He will play a Black gay billionaire inventor on a sci-fi-themed journey to discover the secrets of his missing father.

With that exciting news came a lot of new interest in Tian Richards. So we did a little digging to find some basic info on this rising star.

Here are 5 things to know about up-and-coming actor Tian Richards:

1. He’s still a relative unknown, but not for long.

First and foremost, Tian Richards is still a relative unknown in Hollywood and in the entertainment business. His first major credit is for a one-episode appearance in the Greenleaf TV series back in 2016.

Since then, and as his acting reel shows, Richards has worked in small roles in a number of TV series like 24: Legacy, The Neighborhood, The Quad and more. He has also had small roles in films like 2018’s Burden and Netflix’s Dumplin’.

But later this year Richards will be introduced as the character Tom Swift in a Season 2 episode of The CW’s Nancy Drew before he eventually gets his own spinoff. Actor Tian Richards is about to get a major profile boost.

2. He’s from the American South.

While it’s hard to find info on the relative newcomer, some social media sleuthing has uncovered that actor Tian Richards hails from the Columbus, South Carolina, area. These days, though, he spends his time around Atlanta when he’s not working.

The CW’s Nancy Drew

3. Actor Tian Richards is a fan of fashion and creative crafts.

As his Instagram account shows, Richards loves expressing himself and developing his personal style, something we hope we’ll see more of once we start seeing him more. And according to the actor’s Etsy account, he’s a fan of “cool, creative buys that you can’t find anywhere else and [that] cater to your individual style.”

4. He’s close friends with another (Emmy-winning) newcomer.

Richards is friends with Jharrel Jerome, who won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his role in When They See Us. Despite that large recognition by the industry, Jerome is also a relative newcomer to Hollywood, and it’s great to see these two actor friends receiving success after breaking into the business around the same time.

5. He’s passionate about social justice.

Most important of all, it appears that Tian Richards is a man with heart and soul. Specifically, he joined many of the Black Lives Matter protests that exploded throughout America in 2020 after the death of George Floyd. Together with his sister Alana, actor Tian Richards hosted a protest in his hometown in South Carolina on June 2, 2020.

“Thank you all for exercising your voices and exhibiting the change we hope to see,” he wrote on Instagram, thanking those who participated. “We need uprise and dismantling of a racist system as much as [we] need unity and love.”