Ben Ellerbrock had the choice between either cooking or acting class in high school. When the speech and debate team was full, he arrived at theater his freshman year only after his counselor told him that cooking would not fit in with his class schedule. Read more...

Photo: Theater student Ben Ellerbrock won a National Youth Arts award this summer for his role as Piggy in “Lord of the Flies.” Now he is focusing on comedy in ComedySportz and Rapid Fire Improv at UCLA. (Daniel Alcazar/Daily Bruin senior staff)

A masked figure cloaked head to toe in white stepped onto the streets of Lagos, Nigeria. People chatting with fellow shoppers and haggling for merchandise looked up at the figure and moved aside in reverence, understanding the significance of the costume belonging to the exclusively male ancestor ritual of egungun. Read more...

Photo: Brendan Fernandes created this sculpture of a plastic deer wearing a plastic mask to examine the lack of authenticity in the portrayal of African culture. (Owen Emerson/Daily Bruin senior staff)

Introducing first in the black corner, weighing in at 205 pounds, hailing from Galveston, Texas – they call him the Galveston Giant – it’s Jack Johnson. Read more...

Photo: Actor Tony Todd (right) will play boxer Jack Johnson in the play “Ghost in the House: The Life and Times of Jack Johnson,” premiering in Schoenberg Hall Friday. Playing Johnson allowed Todd to reflect on both the athlete’s life and the mirroring of racial tension in America then and now. Johnson learned how to fight in bare-knuckle street fights at nine years old, becoming the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion. (Hannah Ye/Daily Bruin senior staff)