Columbus Short

Short was born in Kansas City, Missouri to a family he has described as "musical". His mother, Janette, has a talent management company. He has two brothers, John Rancipher and Chris Staples. Short relocated to Los Angeles when he was five years old and immediately began working in a youth theater. He attended Marcos De Niza High School in Tempe, Arizona, as well as El Segundo High School and the Orange County School of the Arts, before leaving to join the off-Broadway tour of Stomp.Short's acting debut came as a dancer in film You Got Served in 2004 and he later appeared in comedy film Accepted in 2006, starring Justin Long. He then took lead roles in the direct-to-DVD movie Save the Last Dance 2 (2006) alongside Izabella Miko and Stomp the Yard (2007). He has also appeared twice in the Disney Channel Original Series That's So Raven as Trey, a member of the fictional boy band "Boyz n' Motion." Other TV appearances include ER and Judging Amy.

In 2006, he appeared in NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as novice show-writer Darius Hawthorne. He was among the presenters at the 2007 NAACP Image Awards. In 2007, Columbus appeared in the movie This Christmas also starring Chris Brown and Lauren London. In 2008, Short appeared in the movie Quarantine, co-starring Jay Hernandez and Jennifer Carpenter, and played the part of musician Little Walter in Cadillac Records (2008), with Jeffrey Wright, Beyoncé Knowles, and Oscar-winner Adrien Brody. In 2010, he played "Pooch" in the film The Losers, based on the graphic novel, co-starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chris Evans, and Zoe Saldana, and directed by Sylvain White (who had already directed Short in Stomp the Yard).