Hicks was the artistic director of the Los Angeles-based Ebony Repertory Theatre, and the artistic director and chairman of the theater arts program at Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts.

He was a long-time associate artist of the Denver Center Theater Company where he directed more than 20 plays, including the entirety of August Wilson's 10-play Century Cycle (sometimes called the Pittsburgh Hill cycle). His numerous regional directing credits included work at The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, Seattle Repertory Theatre and Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, among others.

Hicks is survived by his second wife, Renee Harriston-Hicks.