Prime Video's new murder-mystery thriller Cross brings one of the world's most popular crime-fiction characters to life. Based on the books by James Patterson, the series centers on Alex Cross, a brilliant detective and forensic psychologist in Washington, D.C., as he investigates both a new serial killer on the loose and the mysterious death of his beloved wife. The eight-episode series' biggest strength is its leading man, with 38-year-old Aldis Hodge taking the lead as the buff and confident crime solver.
While Hodge is a familiar face due to his past decade of supporting film roles, fans of Black TV shows and movies have been waiting for the actor, writer, and producer to have his viral leading-man moment. Read on to learn more about the Cross star, including his artistic hobbies.
Alex Cross (Aldis Hodge) interrogates a suspect in a standout scene from Cross's series premiere.
Aldis Hodge has appeared in everything from rap biopics to horror flicks to superhero epics.
Hodge was born in Jacksonville, North Carolina, to parents who served in the Marine Corps. He started as a child actor, appearing in episodes of Sesame Street before making his film debut in the 1995 movie Die Hard with a Vengeance. He appeared on dozens of TV shows throughout the 2000s, including Charmed, Half & Half, Girlfriends, Friday Night Lights, and Leverage.
Some of his best-known roles include playing MC Ren in the 2015 N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton, James Lanier in the 2020 horror movie The Invisible Man, Jim Brown in Regina King's 2020 historical drama One Night in Miami, and Hawkman in the DC superhero flick Black Adam.
His brother Edwin Hodge is also an actor, and the pair own a production company together.
Filmmaking is a family affair for the Hodges. Aldis's older brother Edwin Hodge is also an actor and has appeared in the first three Purge movies, the Transformers spinoff Bumblebee, the Apple TV+ series For All Mankind, and the CBS series FBI: Most Wanted.
Earlier this year, the pair released the sci-fi thriller Parallel, the first movie from their company Hodge Brothers Productions. In the remake of Lei Zheng’s Chinese film Parallel Forest, a grieving family—wife Vanessa (Danielle Deadwyler), husband Alex (Aldis), and his brother, Martel (Edwin Hodge)—takes a trip to a lake house getaway, which is disrupted when Vanessa discovers a parallel universe to their own.
In addition to starring in the film, the Hodge brothers served as co-writers and co-producers on the project.
From left: Edwin Hodge, Danielle Deadwyler, and Aldis Hodge in Parallel.
Aldis Hodge says his pride and joy in life is his young daughter.
In his October cover interview for Essence, Hodge opened up about his experience as a new father. He and his wife recently welcomed their first child, a little girl, and the actor said that being a father has shifted his priorities.
"Whatever job I do, it has to support or supplement the future I’m trying to build for her,” he told the outlet. "It's a different impact for me being there as much as possible, letting my daughter know that I'm here because it's not just for her, it's really for me, too. It's what feeds me. It's what drives me. It's what wakes me up in the morning. It's really the thing that makes me say, Okay, life is worth living. It's what redefines love."
"You can give me 15 Oscars right now and ask me what’s my proudest, happiest moment—it's always going to be about my daughter," he added.
Alex Cross (Hodge) and his son Damon (Caleb Elijah) in Cross.
Aldis Hodge has several hobbies, including watchmaking, painting, and playing the violin.
Hodge is also an entrepreneur who has a ton of artistic interests in addition to acting. Per Essence, he became interested in horology, a.k.a. watchmaking, while studying at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California during his teenage years. He's since founded the luxury watch brand A. Hodge Atelier and he's a trustee of The Horological Society of New York. According to his Instagram bio, he's also an avid painter and co-founded a conceptual art studio called 9B Collective.
"Acting is one avenue of what I choose to do with my life, but it doesn't define everything,” he told Essence. “It’s a nice conduit for the other ventures that I get into because I am a multihyphenate entrepreneur. I own different companies in different sectors of business. Acting is the one that's most present on the profile, but for me, it was always about entrepreneurship and creativity."
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