Dwight Henry

After completing the move to the 7th Ward, the film's director, Behn Zeitlin, offered Henry the role of Wink, which he initially rejected three times for fear that the bakery would suffer without his supervision. Eventually, Zeitlin won him over by bankrolling the business, which allowed him to hire additional staff while he appeared in the picture. With the help of Zeitlin and an acting coach, Henry was able to tap into his own past, most notably his experiences both as a two-year-old during the devastating Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and attempting to protect his business from rising flood waters and looters in the wake of Katrina, to inform his performance as Wink. The result was a critically acclaimed turn at both the Cannes and the Sundance film festivals in 2012, as well as additional movie offers. He soon accepted a supporting role in director Steve McQueen's "Twelve Years a Slave" (2013) opposite Brad Pitt and Paul Giamatti, but the restaurant business remained his primary focus. The success of "Beasts" gave Henry the clout to expand the Buttermilk Drop Bakery to other locations, including New York's Harlem neighborhood while also teaming with actor Wendell Pierce to open a chain of fresh-food markets across New Orleans. He also made plans to open a second restaurant, Wink's in downtown New Orleans. By Paul Gaita