Obba Babatundé listenⓘ (born Donald Cohen; December 1, 1951) is a Daytime Emmy award winning American actor.

[2] Learning that his ancestry included people from Nigeria, he adopted a name made of Yoruba words: Obba, for "king", and Babatunde, meaning "father has returned again.

"[3] Babatundé has said a breakthrough role was gaining a part in a 1976 touring company of Guys and Dolls, starring Leslie Uggams and Richard Roundtree.

His feature film appearances include Life as Willie, The Celestine Prophecy, Material Girls, After the Sunset, The Manchurian Candidate, The Notebook, a SWAT captain in John Q, an attorney in Philadelphia (1993), The Last Fall, If I Tell You I Have to Kill You, The Fallen Faithful, Trapped, Tension, and Kinky.

Babatundé has appeared in three prime-time series: CBS' Madam Secretary, as Barton Royce in the Showtime's I'm Dying Up Here (2017), and as Dean Fairbanks in Netflix's Dear White People (2017–2018).

He also appeared in Half & Half, as well as appearances on The Bold and the Beautiful, Boston Legal, Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, Cold Case, Strong Medicine, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Touched by an Angel, Chicago Hope, Any Day Now, Karen Sisco, Dawson's Creek, and Friends.

[5] In the animated feature The Wild Thornberrys Movie, Babatundé voiced the character of Boko, and in the 2016 Air Bud Entertainment film Pup Star, he played the soul-singing Basset Hound, Big Ears.

Some of his recorded works include singing the title track on the Onaje Allan Gumbs's album Sack Full of Dreams, and "The Gal That Got Away" on Over The Rainbow, the Harold Arlen soundtrack.

In 2016, he received the Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series" for his role as Julius Avant in the soap opera "The Bold and the Beautiful"[citation needed].