Wayland Rodd, born in the United States, was the first African-American performer of the role of Othello in a white company (New York). In the early 1930s, he came to the USSR with his white American pianist wife. The Soviet Union became his second home. In 1938, he graduated from the State Institute of Theatre Arts (directing department), worked at the Meyerhold Theatre, and appeared in many Soviet films. He was a regular actor in Soviet cinema at a time when communication with foreign countries was virtually nonexistent, and a black man on the street would draw a crowd of onlookers.