Walter Russell III is one of the youngest GRAMMY Award winners in history for his work on the cast album of Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Terence Blanchard, the first opera by a black composer at the MET. A Harlem, NY native, Walter originated the role of Young Michael in MJ the musical on Broadway where he is currently playing the role of Young Marlon. Broadway/Tour: The Lion King (Young Simba). Regional: Kinky Boots at the Hollywood Bowl (Young Lola). Television: “Gossip Girl,” “The Good Fight,” “That Damn Michael Che,” “Let the Right One In,” “Disney Family Singalong II.” Walter is represented by CESD and Terrific Talent. @wr3hrlm
"In the next scene, his 7-year-old self, Char’es-Baby, is played by Walter Russell III, an endearingly gangly and sweet-toned boy soprano. The device of having a character be portrayed by two singers at different stages of life goes back a long way in opera, and works powerfully here. During long stretches of Act I, Charles hovers around Char’es-Baby, issuing warnings the boy can’t hear, and they sometimes sing in duo, with winding lyrical lines over mellow harmonies." - The NY Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/28/arts/music/fire-blanchard-met-opera.html
"The role of Charles was split between two performers, the powerful baritone Will Liverman — who in 2023 will sing the lead in a Met revival of Anthony Davis’s “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” — and the young dynamo Walter Russell III, who plays Charles as a boy, affectionately and diminutively referred to by everyone in the neighborhood (i.e. the chorus) as “Char’es-Baby.” - The Washington Post