is an American actor and businessman. He is known for roles in HBO dramas such as Detective Bunk Moreland in The Wire and trombonist Antoine Batiste in Treme; as well as portraying James Greer in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, high-powered attorney Robert Zane in Suits, and Michael Davenport in Waiting to Exhale. Pierce also had roles in the films Malcolm X, Ray, and Selma, and performed the lead role of Willy Loman in the 2019 revival of a play Death of a Salesman on the West End in London at the Piccadilly Theatre, which earned him a nomination for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play. He has been thrice nominated for Independent Spirit Awards.

 

According to the Marketplace radio program, in December, 2011, he opened Sterling Express, the first in a chain of grocery stores selling fresh produce and other staples in his hometown of New Orleans 

 

After losing his childhood home to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Wendell suffered yet another devastating loss in August 2016 when another home was taken from him due to widespread flooding in Louisiana. The recent flooding is almost 11 years to the day when Katrina made landfall.

​Both the part of Antoine Batiste on Treme and the part of Owen Thoreau, Jr., on Men of a Certain Age (2009) were created with him in mind. He was offered both parts around the same time but had to choose Treme since it was about New Orleans, his hometown. Grew up in the Pontchartrain Park section of New Orleans.