Donnell Turner

Donnell L. Turner (born January 8, 1973) is an American actor best known for his portrayal of Curtis Ashford on the ABC daytime soap opera, General Hospital.

Donnell Turner
Born (1973-01-08) January 8, 1973
Tacoma, Washington
Occupation
  • Actor
  • Model
Years active2004–present
Known forCurtis Ashford (General Hospital)
Home townChicago, Illinois
Height6’ 2’’
RelativesEjay "Blunt" Turner (brother)

Personal life

Turner was born on January 8, 1973 in Tacoma, Washington.[1][2] Turner's brother Ejay "Blunt" Turner is a member of the 1990s Contemporary R&B group, DRS.[3] His family relocated to Chicago when Donnell was still a baby. As a child, Turner relocated to Redding, California with his mother and brother, where they were the only African American family in the neighborhood.

Turner fell in love with performing as a child participating in church plays. In high school, he played basketball and played trumpet in band. Turner has a cat, Josephine "Josie" Baker, named after the eponymous late singer. [2][3] Turner has studied martial arts since the age of 10 and explained that it helped him in his acting career. He also enjoys knife combat, nunchaku, yoga, kickboxing, and firearms training.[4]

Career

Turner briefly played semi-pro basketball but quit to act full-time. In 2001, Turner moved to Los Angeles and eventually started modeling and commercial work for several major brands including Nike, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Bud Light, Coors, Mercedes-Benz, Disney and AT&T. As of 2016, he has appeared in over 100 commercials.[4] Turner also found work as a production assistant and stunt work for shows like ER where he doubled for Eriq La Salle and Criminal Minds where he doubled for Shemar Moore. Turner later doubled for Jesse L. Martin in the musical, Rent. Turner also found work as a background artist. In 2010, Turner appeared on Days of Our Lives as Dr. Aiden Williams opposite Kristian Alfonso. Turner who grew up watching General Hospital started writing to casting director Mark Teschner in the 1990s and first auditioned for the series in 2014. On October 29, 2015, he signed on to portray Curtis Ashford.[3]

Charitable works

Turner also works as a motivational speaker and speaks with college and high school students, as well as religious and professional association audiences. Turner also has a mentoring program known as the "Turnround Project."[4][5] On April 2, 2016, Turner was the celebrity guest speaker at the Autism Speaks Walk Now event.[6]

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
2004 Wednesday Afternoon Backup Police Officer Short
2006 Diamond Real Estate Keion Richards Video short
2006–07 Criminal Minds Apartment super/ Man on the street #1 2 episodes
2007 Grave Situations Jerry
2008 Alternative Marcus Short
2009 A Fish Needs a Bicycle Eric Short
2009–10 Days of Our Lives Dr. Aiden Williams Recurring; 3 episodes
2010 A Worthy Gentleman Maurice
2011 The Boulevard Stan Hodek TV movie
2012 2 Broke Girls Officer James Episode: "And Martha Stewart have a Ball"; Parts 1 and 2
2012 Baby Daddy Guy Episode: "Married to the Job"
2012 Parks and Recreation Louis Episode: "Halloween Surprise"
2012 90210 Waiter Episode: "Into the Wild"
2013 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Bouncer 1 episode
2013 Anger Management Handsome man 1 episode
2013 Save Me Benicio 1 episode
2013 Teen Wolf Paramedic 1 episode
2013 Dexter Off Duty Cop 1 episode
2013 Social Nightmare Officer Elliot TV movie
2013 Baseball's Last Hero: 21 Clemente Stories Dock Ellis Independent film
2013 The Mindy Project Male cop 1 episode
2013 Revenge Investor 1 episode
2014 Love That Girl! Calvin B. Lyons 1 episode
2014 Friends with Better Lives Cop #2 1 episode
2014 Bad Judge Fireman 1 episode
2014 How to Get Away with Murder Handsome man 1 episode
2014 Suffocated Max Short
2015 The Young and the Restless Doctor 2 episodes
2015 Stitchers Dean Jerome Hardwyck 1 episode
2015 Rizzoli & Isles Firefighter 1 episode
2015 Kevin from Work Coach 1 episode
2015 General Hospital Curtis Ashford Contract role; November 30, 2015–present
2016 Time In Between Wreck Film
2016 A Million Happy Now Mr. Handsome Film
2016 The Choir Director Detective McGraw Film
gollark: Ignore the "unless it's a gaming laptop" bit, you basically need a dedicated GPU for high performance.
gollark: They *work*, just not well.
gollark: I got a used laptop for £140, and put in £30 of upgrades (extra RAM and SSD) and it works great, even for light Minecrafting.
gollark: You could build a desktop which massively beats that for < £400 nowadays, and even a £300 laptop or something will probably destroy your ancient... thing.
gollark: That's old enough that they should probably let you make reasonable decisions about how you spend money.

References
  1. "U.S. Public Records Index, 1950-1993". 2010. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  2. Burtt, Kristyn (December 14, 2015). "8 Things to know about General Hospital's Donnell Turner". SheKnows Media. Great Hill Partners. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  3. Levinsky, Mara (April 18, 2016). "The Grinder". Soap Opera Digest. 41 (16): 68–71.
  4. Ciaccia, Maria (March 30, 2016). "Curtis Ashford/Donnell Turner". GH Character & Actor. About.com. The New York Times Company. Retrieved April 8, 2016.|
  5. MiguelJT (February 9, 2016). "'General Hospital' News: Donnell Turner Exclusively Dishes On His Busy Career - Charity Events, New Movies". Soap Opera Spy. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  6. "GH'S DONNELL TURNER SPEAKS OUT ON AUTISM". Soap Opera Digest. American Media, Inc. March 18, 2016. Retrieved April 9, 2016.


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