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Tonya Pinkins picture

Tonya Pinkins

Acting
Known For

63 Years Old

Tonya Pinkins was born in Chicago, Illinois. She has four children. Her father was a police officer and insurance salesman and her mother is a former postal worker. She has two brothers, Eric Swoope and Thomas Swoope and a sister Tamera Swoope from whom she is estranged. She was interested in the arts from a young age. In high school, she studied acting at the Goodman Theatre Young People's Program. Aged 18, she briefly attended college and decided to pursue an acting career instead. She later returned to college, earning an undergraduate degree from Columbia College in Chicago, followed by graduate work at Carnegie Mellon's music theater program, and a year at California Western School of Law in San Diego. Pinkins is probably most admired for her stage work. She won a Tony Award for her performance as Sweet Anita in Jelly's Last Jam. She was nominated for her roles in Play On! and in Caroline, or Change, where she played the title role. Her additional Broadway credits include Merrily We Roll Along, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, The Wild Party, House of Flowers, Radio Golf, A Time To Kill and Holler If Ya Hear Me. Pinkins has performed in several Off Broadway productions, including the comic role of Mopsa, the Shepherdess, in The Winter's Tale produced by the Riverside Shakespeare Company at The Shakespeare Center in 1983. In 2011, Pinkins starred in the world premiere of Kirsten Greenidge’s Milk Like Sugar at La Jolla Playhouse, and received a 2012 Craig Noel nomination for Best featured Actress in a Play. She reprised her role in the Playwrights Horizons in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, and garnered a 2012 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play. In 2012 Pinkins starred in Katori Hall's play Hurt Village, the gritty drama about life and change in a Memphis housing project made its world-premiere at Off-Broadway's Signature Theatre Company as part of the theatre's inaugural season. The play also Marsha Stephanie Blake, Ron Cephas Jones, Saycon Sengbloh, Lloyd Watts, Charlie Hudson III, Nicholas Christopher, Corey Hawkins, Ron Cephas Jones and Joaquina Kalukango. In 2014, Pinkins appeared in New Federal Theatre's revival of Ed Bullins' The Fabulous Miss Marie opposite Roscoe Orman; in the Broadway production of Holler If Ya Hear Me; and the world premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' War at Yale Repertory. She has also had a prolific television career making guest appearances on such television shows as Army Wives, 24, Law & Order, The Cosby Show, Cold Case, Criminal Minds, and The Guardian among others. During the mid-1980s Pinkins created the role of Heather Dalton on the CBS soap, As the World Turns. In 1991 she was cast as Livia Frye in All My Children. Pinkins left All My Children in 1995 but returned to her role in 2003. She was later put on contract with the show from March 2004 until June 2006, when she was downgraded to recurring status. She has played Amala Motobo on the popular television show 24. She has appeared in several films in supporting roles, including Newlyweeds, Home, Fading Gigolo opposite Woody Allen, Enchanted, Premium, Romance & Cigarettes, Noah's Arc: Jumping The Broom and Above the Rim among others.

Born

Chicago, Illinois, USA on 30th May 1962

All Credits

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Criminal Minds
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Law & Order
Angela Young
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Law & Order
Woman
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Fear the Walking Dead
Martha
Great Performances Image
Great Performances
Self
Gotham Image
Gotham
Ethel Peabody
Elementary Image
Elementary
Judge Marilyn Whitfield
24 Image
24
Cold Case Image
Cold Case
Dina Miller
The Cosby Show Image
The Cosby Show
Iris
The Strain Image
The Strain
Francis
East New York Image
East New York
Shirley Haywood
Bull Image
Bull
Judge Maynard
Madam Secretary Image
Madam Secretary
Susan Thompson
Madam Secretary Image
Madam Secretary
Susan Thomas
Scandal Image
Scandal
Sandra
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11.22.63
Mia Mimi Corcoran
The Closer Image
The Closer
Donna Taft
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Crime Story
Junkie Prostitute
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God Friended Me
Marsha
All My Children Image
All My Children
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Wu-Tang: An American Saga
Burgess
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Hostages
Beth Nix
The Guardian Image
The Guardian
Melinda Tralins
Army Wives Image
Army Wives
Viola Crawford
Army Wives Image
Army Wives
Women of the Movement Image
Women of the Movement
Alma
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Random Acts of Flyness
Ripa The Reaper
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The Hunt for the Chicago Strangler
Narradora
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Run the World
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Enchanted
Phoebe Banks
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Black in the 80s
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See No Evil, Hear No Evil
Leslie
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The Book of Henry
Principal Wilder
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Red Pill
Cassandra
Above the Rim Image
Above the Rim
Mailika
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My Days of Mercy
Agatha
Romance & Cigarettes Image
Romance & Cigarettes
Female Medic
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University Hospital
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Against Their Will
Sondra
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The Evolution of Horror Cinema Worldwide
Horror Film Expert
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The Artist's Wife
Liza Caldwell
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Aardvark
Abigail
Home Image
Home
Esmin
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The Surrogate
Karen Weatherston-Harris
Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened... Image
Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened...
Self
Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom Image
Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom
Mrs. Robinson
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The School for Wives
Arnolphe
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American Dream
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Newlyweeds
Patrice
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An Act of Terror
Mary Church Terrell
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Collective: Unconscious
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Valerie Brown
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Jammin': Jelly Roll Morton on Broadway
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Rasheeda Speaking
Jaclyn
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The Life of Peter Gottlieb
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Everybody Dies!
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