Innocence Ambassadors

Adam Conover is an American actor, writer, and comedian. He is most known for his work in creating and hosting the TruTV show: Adam Ruins Everything, a spinoff of the popular CollegeHumor series. Mr. Conover, who won a Saturn Award for Best Host on Television, credits Innocence Project’s Director of Strategic Litigation Chris Fabricant  for inspiring the original idea for the show. In one episode titled: “Bad Forensic Science with Chris Fabricant,” the two discussed missappled forensic science, including bite mark analysis.

Chris Martin is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and philanthropist. He is best known as the co-founder and lead singer of the British rock band Coldplay. Mr. Martin became an Innocence Ambassador in 2016 and as a result, the Innocence Project accompanied Coldplay on their US leg of the A Head Full Of Dreams World tour – educating concert goers about wrongful conviction in the U.S.

Hari Karthikeya Kondabolu is an American stand-up comedian, writer, and podcaster known for his incisive comedy on race, inequity, and representation. Deemed as “one of the most exciting political comics in stand-up today” by the New York Times,  he released his latest special Vacation Baby on Hulu and YouTube. It follows his Netflix special, Warn Your Relatives and his documentary The Problem with Apu. A former immigrant rights organizer, Mr. Kondabolu is committed to advocating for human rights and criminal justice reform.

Joe Morton is a highly-respected actor, director, and producer across film, television, and theatre. Morton won an Emmy® Award and multiple National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Image Awards for his role as Rowan/Eli Pope in Shonda Rhimes’ critically acclaimed series Scandal. Morton recently expanded his TV presence as executive co-producer and co-host on Inside the Black Box, an interactive interview show, which explores the experiences of black artists within the world of entertainment.

In film, Morton is best known for his roles in The Brother from Another Planet, and Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Morton debuted on Broadway in Hair, and received a Tony nomination and Theatre World Award for his portrayal of Walter Lee Younger in Raisin. He also received a Lucile Lortel Award (among other awards) for his Off-Broadway portrayal of comedian/civil-rights activist, Dick Gregory, in Turn Me Loose. Recently, Morton received the NAACP theatre award as Outstanding Lead Actor for his performance as King Lear at the Wallis Annenberg Center in LA. Mr Morton is also the recipient of an Audie, the Audible Award, for his reading of Ta-Nehisi Coats’  Water Dancer.

Morton has a long history of social activism, using his platform to raise awareness and advocate for change. In 2025, Morton participated in a fundraising event for the Innocence Project, reuniting with Sally Murphy and Cornelius Eady for a one-night only reading of Eady’s  Brutal Imagination — a play about Susan Smith, the woman who drowned her children and accused a non-existent black man of kidnapping them. He also served as moderator for a special event held in Martha’s Vineyard featuring a conversation between Innocence Project’s Executive Director Christina Swarms and New York City Councilperson Dr. Yosef Salaam (also of the Exonerated Five).

John Mulaney is a three-time Emmy Award, Critics Choice award and WGA award-winning writer, comedian and actor.  Mr. Mulaney has long been a committed voice for criminal justice reform. In 2013 he hosted a fundraiser at The Bell House in Brooklyn for the Innocence Project. In 2024, he paired up with Nick Kroll to compete for the grand prize on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Mr. Mulaney donated his portion of their prize to the Innocence Project.

Carol Denise Betts, known professionally as Niecy Nash, is an American actress and television host, known for her role in Reno 911! and as the host of Clean House, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award. Following her role as Deloris Wise – the mother of former Innocence Project client Korey Wise – in Ava DuVernay’s Netflix series When They See Us, she wrote in a piece for the Innocence Project, “From that moment on, I was committed to being a responsible storyteller by taking an active role in supporting the real-life Korey Wises of the world.”

Nnamdi Asomugha is an American actor, producer, and former NFL cornerback recognized as one of the best shutdown corners of his era. Mr. Asomugha became an Innocence Ambassador in 2018, after the release of his film Crown Heights, in which he starred as wrongfully-convicted-Trinidadian-immigrant Colin Warner. Following a screening and discussion of the movie, Mr.Asomugha and the Innocence Project’s Director of Post-Conviction Litigation Vanessa Potkin hosted a talkback with Innocence Project staff, board members, exonerees, and supporters.

Paris Barclay is an American television director, producer, and writer. He has directed nearly 200 television episodes, including for shows like ER, The West Wing, Monster, and Doctor Odyssey. He served two terms as president of the Directors Guild of America and currently serves as its secretary treasurer. Mr. Barclay is a longtime donor and supporter of the Innocence Project.

Paul Andrew Schneider is an acclaimed American actor known for his roles in Parks and Recreation and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. He received the National Society of Film Critics Award for his role in the drama Bright Star and the Tribeca Film Festival Award for his role in the romantic comedy Goodbye to All of That. In 2014, the Innocence Project honored him with Advocate for Social Justice Award. In 2018, he returned for  “Inaugural Conversations with the Innocence Project,” a series of discussions that brought together leading experts, people impacted by the criminal legal system and innocence advocates to discuss and take action on issues plaguing the system.

Jason Fraticelli, better known by his stage name Silent Knight or “SK,” is an independent hip-hop recording and performing artist who has captivated crowds on many world-renowned stages and opened for—or collaborated with—an assortment of acts, including Inspectah Deck of the Wu-Tang Clan; Nneka; Talib Kweli; 112; and members of The Roots. He regularly collaborates with the Innocence Project. In 2022, he performed at the Innocence Project’s Wrongful Conviction Day event at Riverside Church in NYC and, in 2024, at a rally in NYC for The Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act.

Stephen Colbert hosts the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning, #1 show in late night The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He previously hosted The Colbert Report on Comedy Central, following his work as a correspondent on The Daily Show. In 2021, Colbert’s Spartina Industries banner signed a three-year first-look deal to develop television and streaming content for CBS Studios. Spartina’s most recent project is CBS’s newest late-night show, After Midnight, starring Taylor Tomlinson, which premiered in January of 2024.

Colbert has a long history of amplifying the Innocence Project’s work having interviewed Innocence Project Co-Founder, Barry Scheck, as well as former Innocence Project client Jerry Miller, who was the 200th person in the U.S. to be exonerated through DNA testing.

Susan Abigail Sarandon is an American actor known for her diverse roles in film and television, including her Academy Award-winning performance in Dead Man Walking. Susan Sarandon starred in The Exonerated, Court-TV’s 2005 film version of the award-winning Off-Broadway play which features the stories of six people who were exonerated after being sentenced to death. In 2014, Sarandon also narrated CNN’s six-episode documentary series Death Row Stories, which chronicled the events involved in a death row case and uncovered shortcomings of the nation’s criminal legal system. She has been a long-time supporter of the Innocence Project’s mission and its clients.

Taryn Simon is a multidisciplinary artist whose projects make use of  photography, sculpture, text, sound and performance, and center on storytelling, secrecy, and the hidden contours of power. Her multi-year projects are informed by research with institutions such as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the International Commission on Missing Persons, and the Fine Arts Commission of the CIA. Her work is held in collections internationally including the Guggenheim in New York, the Tate Modern in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

She collaborated with the Innocence Project producing The Innocents with the support of a photography fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. First published in 2003 and exhibited at MoMA PS1 that same year, The Innocents features photographs of 46 exonerees at sites that came to assume particular significance following their wrongful conviction. A new edition of The Innocents was released in conjunction with the Innocence Project’s 30th anniversary in 2001, and features an essay by the Innocence Project co-Founders Peter J. Neufeld and Barry C. Scheck.

Tony Goldwyn is an actor, director and producer. He has a range of notable credits, including his breakout role in the box office smash Ghost, the recent films One Battle after Another, Oppenheimer and King Richard, and his longtime role of President Fitzgerald Grant in the ABC drama Scandal. He can currently be seen as district attorney, Nicholas Baxter, on NBC’s Law & Order — which aired an Innocence Project inspired episode during Season 23.

In 2010, Tony directed the movie Conviction starring Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell, which tells the story of Betty Anne Waters’ journey to free her brother Kenneth “Kenny” Waters, a former Innocence Project client. In 2014, he co-created the legal drama series The Divide.

Tony dedicates much of his personal time to philanthropic work across several organizations, including the Innocence Project where he has served as both a board member and an Innocence Ambassador since 2017. From co-chairing multiple galas to being honored himself in 2013, Tony is dedicated to using his platform and his voice to advocate for the innocent and fight for more fair and compassionate systems of justice for everyone.

Whoopi Goldberg is an award-winning actress, author, producer and entrepreneur. She is a dedicated humanitarian, philanthropist and committed criminal justice activist, and has been a longtime Innocence Project Ambassador and supporter.

Yvonne Anuli Orji is a Nigerian-American actress and comedian best known for her role in Insecure, which earned her critical acclaim a Primetime Emmy Award and three National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Image Awards.

Zooey Deschanel is an American actress and musician known for her roles in comedy and drama films, as well as her starring role in the hit sitcom New Girl. In 2011, Deschanel led a fundraiser for the Innocence Project as part of a celebrity challenge on Crowdrise that was sponsored by Mozilla.