From Bowie to the Big Screen: Alum Tico Wells Comes Full Circle

Nearly four decades before he picked up an iPhone to direct a documentary about first-generation college students, Tico Wells was trying to navigate his own college experience.

He didn't know what FAFSA (the Free Application for Federal Student Aid) was, let alone how to spell it. He'd been turned down by the University of Maryland, Howard University, The Catholic University and New York University. Then a summer music workshop brought him to Bowie State, where Professor Eula B. Peters told him to come on over. "We'd love to have you at Bowie." That single invitation, and the financial aid he taught himself to navigate, opened a door. What he found on the other side changed the direction of his life.

"I was bold before I was Bowie Bold," Wells said. "I didn't know what I was doing with financial aid or anything like that. But I knew that I could fill out an application."

At Bowie, Wells landed in a theater program on the rise under Professor H.D. Flowers, who had studied at Yale and offered a new level of opportunity for Bowie students that hadn't existed before, and he hit the ground running. He remembers joining the concert choir under Dr. Peters and the S. Randolph Edmonds players, acting and directing for the theater company as they traveled to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) theater competitions and won several awards. He earned a regional award for his role in James Baldwin's "The Amen Corner." The department even made it into Jet magazine in 1979.

Two years later, he transferred to study theater at NYU following a dream first planted when he was 14 years old. Wells went on to a career that included a memorable run on "The Cosby Show," an infamous role as Anthony "Choir Boy" Stone in The Five Heartbeats. These days, in addition to his local work, he appears in a faith-based film Jacob: Broken by God streaming on Amazon Prime, Tubi series Caught 2, and is actively teaching acting to students of his own.

That early experience, someone believing in him, a program willing to open a door, is exactly what drew Wells back to Maryland this year, this time behind the camera. His new documentary, "First Generation College Bound: 33 Years and Counting," tells the story of his longtime friend, Joe Fisher, founder and CEO of First Generation College Bound, a local educator who has spent more than three decades helping low-income and first-generation students in Prince George's County and the surrounding area understand that money exists to help them go to college. They just need to know how to find it.

What began in 1990 as Fisher's personal mission has grown into a nonprofit now working with eight Prince George's County high schools, including Laurel, Duval, Parkdale and Central. Every June, students march across a stage at the University of Maryland to announce where they're headed next. Wells shot the entire film himself on his phone, on a shoestring budget. It has already been screened at the Las Vegas Premiere Film Festival, the Greenbelt Cinema, and Tico's alma mater, Laurel High School, with further distribution still to come.

The project is, in many ways, Wells telling his own story back to the community that gave it to him. The kid who once "didn't know what he was doing" is now the one making sure other students don't have to feel that way. It's also a reminder of why the mission matters more than ever: the world today's students are facing looks very different from what it did in the '80s, or even five years ago. Rapid change, economic pressure, and the rise of AI are changing what young people need to thrive, and Wells believes the answer isn't just information; it's purpose.

"The world is changing really fast, and AI is a thing," Wells said. "Do something that makes you feel a sense of contribution. Don't do it just for the money; because your life will be drained if you work just for money."

Ask Wells what "Bowie Bold" means, and he talks about vision.

"Bold is like… you dream, and you create visions for your life, and what you want to see in the world," he said. "I always wanted to be one of those people who transform life in some kind of way-through music, art, acting, theater, film."

That's the thread running through Wells' entire journey: a first-generation Bowie student who didn't know the rules of the game, bold enough to fill out the application anyway, now an artist bold enough to take up his camera and hold space for the next generation of students chasing the same dream.

"First Generation College Bound" may be Joe Fisher's mission, but it's also Tico Wells being Bowie Bold, 33 years and counting.