Why Disclosure Day Star Colman Domingo's Mom Kept Writing Oprah
When Colman Domingo was a child, he was hospitalized with a severe asthma attack. He was scared and far from home. When his mother finally picked him up at night and drove him back through Philadelphia, the city was lit up with Christmas decorations. She pointed to the lights and told him they had all been put up to welcome him home.
That is the kind of mother Edith Bowles was.
Domingo, currently one of the most sought-after actors in Hollywood, told that story on the Good Hang with Amy Poehler podcast as he promoted Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg's alien thriller opening in theaters June 12. While he talked about his West Philadelphia upbringing and his long climb through theater, he kept returning to the woman who raised him. 'She would make me believe that I was very special,' Domingo told Poehler, 'and that the world was set up to do me more good than harm. Constantly.'
Edith, who passed away in 2006, never lived to see how right she was. But she seemed to know. When Domingo was struggling as a young actor in San Francisco in the 1990s, she would call him and report, calmly, that she had written to Oprah Winfrey again. Domingo was mortified. 'Will you please stop writing Oprah?' he recalled telling her. She kept writing. By his count she wrote the same letter roughly eight times. Her reasoning was simple...Oprah helps people. If she just knew how good her son was, she would help him too.
Years later, Domingo found himself hiking on Oprah's property in Maui. Walking together, he finally told her the story. 'She sort of stops,' he said, 'and she says, 'Oh, I don't know if I got the letters, but I know I got the message.' The two of them kept walking, hand in hand.
Related: Steven Spielberg Says His Dad Made Him a Believer in Alien Life
His mother also wanted Spike Lee and Steven Spielberg to meet him, convinced they'd take to him. Both are now among the most significant collaborators of Domingo's career. He appeared Lee's Passing Strange, in Lincoln for Spielberg in 2012, and now Disclosure Day. 'She wanted Steven Spielberg to know me,' Domingo told Poehler. 'She didn't know Steven Spielberg would love me, but we love each other now and he's my family.'
Domingo is a 1987 graduate of Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, coincidentally, the same time as Will Smith. He described himself to Poehler as someone who spent his early years at Barnes & Noble reading self-help books, working to become a different kind of person. But his mother was the source of the confidence he has now. 'I do believe,' he said, 'that sometimes people have dreams for you you don't even have for yourself.'
Disclosure Day opens in theaters nationwide on June 12.
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This story was originally published June 10, 2026 at 8:12 AM.