CF Clanton is a writer, actor, and father whose journey spans the performing arts, film and television, screenwriting, and now publishing. He is best known for his work on HBO, appearing in two seasons of the acclaimed series The Wire as Savino Bratten, and later in We Own This City, portraying Officer Brian Hairston. His background in acting and the performing arts sharpened his eye for character, conflict, and the unspoken dynamics that drive human behavior.
But Clanton’s story isn’t one of straight lines or simple successes. He has had his share of run-ins with the law choices and moments he is not proud of. Those experiences, combined with the darker patterns of manipulation he once thrived in, have become part of his reckoning. Rather than burying that past, he confronts it openly, transforming it into lessons that now fuel his work as a writer, father, and storyteller.
After years in acting, Clanton transitioned to writing, completing several screenplays and honing his voice as a storyteller. Yet The Laws to Finessing Me: The Unspoken Rules Men Never Want You to Know marks his first book and his most vulnerable project. A draft he has carried since 2017, it is both a confession and a gift: an unflinching look at how he once exploited insecurities, and a love letter to his three daughters, urging them never to forget their worth or power.
Clanton’s path has been marked by mistakes, art, and hard earned growth. Today, he brings the same raw edge that defined his past to his writing, but with a new purpose: to turn manipulation into wisdom, missteps into clarity, and silence into truth.