When Christopher B. Duncan was offered the role of Blaze, a new character in the ongoing third season of Black Mafia Family (BMF), he hadn’t seen a single episode of the show.
“I was definitely aware of BMF, but I just hadn’t had the chance to really dig into the episodes,” Duncan told Boulder Weekly on a recent Zoom call. “I mean, there are just so many shows out there.”
But as soon as the 59-year-old actor started watching, he was hooked.
“I dug into every single episode. I did so several times, too,” says Duncan, a CU Boulder grad who spent his formative years in Colorado Springs. “I just really wanted to be familiar with the world.”
Inspired by a true story, Black Mafia Family depicts the rise of Big Meech (Demetrius Flenory Jr.) and Southwest T (Da’Vinchi) in southwest Detroit as they become one of the most influential crime families in America.
The show has developed a devout audience since its 2021 debut, and March marked its return for a third season.
This time around, Meech and Southwest T have to go up against Blaze, a drug kingpin and former narcotics detective. Duncan says this background gives his character the “knowledge, awareness and ability to know the traps and pitfalls of drug running.”
At the same time, Blaze works very closely with his daughter Henrietta (Ren King), who wants to be a leader in her dad’s organization, even though she has a much different approach than her father.
“The core of the crazy chaos between the two is that she hasn’t proven to Blaze that he can trust her ability to be a leader,” Duncan says. “We start Season 3 in a struggle. That only increases, and it causes a lot of fireworks.”
Boasting a range that oscillates between comedy, drama and action, Duncan can’t hide his delight at getting to portray a character as complex as Blaze.
“It was such a gift for me to play this particular kind of role,” he says. “This was a delicious experience for me, to be in such a playground and sink my teeth into such a character for an extended period of time.”
All in the family
As the son of an Air Force service member, Duncan’s early life saw him constantly bouncing from country to country. He lived in Germany, Japan, Austria, Spain and France before his family finally made their home in Boulder and then Colorado Springs, where he was bitten by the acting bug as a student at Mitchell High School.
“It all began in English class,” he says. “I was reading Shakespeare aloud, and my teacher pulled me aside and said I had something going on with the way I read it. There was a depth there. She convinced me in that moment to audition for the school play.”
As soon as he walked out on stage as the character of Joe Stoddard in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, Duncan felt an energy between himself and the audience that was so powerful he immediately knew he wanted to make acting his life’s work.
Duncan remained in Colorado after high school to earn his BFA in acting at CU Boulder. But he already had one foot out the door toward New York and Broadway.
“I wanted to do as much theater as I could possibly get my hands on,” he says.
During one fateful performance of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, an agent from Los Angeles was in the audience. He immediately saw Duncan’s potential and helped change his trajectory.
“He asked about my plans after college. I said I wanted to go to New York. He told me I should go to Los Angeles and that if I did, he would represent me,” he says. “I looked him up, saw his client list and was suitably impressed. So I went to Los Angeles, and he ended up representing me. It took me two and a half years of pounding the pavement in L.A., working odd jobs, before I got my first on-camera job.”
Since then, Duncan has been a television regular, securing recurring roles on shows like Coach, The Jamie Foxx Show, Soul Food and Veronica Mars, while also popping up in episodes of Modern Family, 24 and NCIS, as well as dozens of other series and films.
But Duncan says Black Mafia Family feels different, particularly because of how it blends truth and fiction.
“Some of it is based on real people and experiences. Some characters really existed, there are fictional characters, and then there are hybrids,” he says. “That just adds intrigue and makes the show so unique.”
Despite the heightened drama and danger of the show, Duncan hopes viewers will still be able to relate to the dynamic and relationships that are key to the series.
“There are so many different sorts of relationships in BMF that people can relate to — whether it is a loved one struggling with drug addiction or relationships where there’s anger and rage,” he says. “The show isn’t just universal. It’s meaningful.”
ON SCREEN: Black Mafia Family (BMF) airs Friday nights at 6 p.m. MT on STARZ.