Tonya Pinkins

Tonya Pinkins

Birthdate
May 30, 1962 (62 years old)
Place of Birth
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Known For
Acting

Details

Birthdate
May 30, 1962 (62 years old)
Place of Birth
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Known For
Acting

Biography

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.

Tonya Pinkins's LGBTQ+ Titles

My Days of Mercy
My Days of Mercy
Agatha
The Surrogate
The Surrogate
Karen Weatherston-Harris

Acting (55)

2025
The Evolution of Horror Cinema Worldwide as Horror Film Expert
2024
The Life of Peter Gottlieb as Dean Fendleman
2022
East New York as Shirley Haywood (1 episode)
2022
Women of the Movement as Alma (6 episodes)
2021
The Hunt for the Chicago Strangler as Narradora (4 episodes)
2021
The Surrogate as Karen Weatherston-Harris
2021
Run the World as Gwen Greene (1 episode)
2021
Red Pill as Cassandra
2020
The School for Wives as Arnolphe
2020
The Artist's Wife as Liza Caldwell
2019
Wu-Tang: An American Saga as Burgess (1 episode)
2018
God Friended Me as Marsha (3 episodes)
2018
Mr. Talented as Valerie Brown
2018
Random Acts of Flyness as Ripa The Reaper (6 episodes)
2018
Aardvark as Abigail
2018
My Days of Mercy as Agatha
2017
The Book of Henry as Principal Wilder
2017
An Act of Terror as Mary Church Terrell
2016
Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened... as Self
2016
Bull as Judge Maynard (1 episode)
2016
Collective: Unconscious as Ripa the Reaper
2016
Everybody Dies! as Ripa the Reaper
2016
11.22.63 as Mia Mimi Corcoran (4 episodes)
2015
Rasheeda Speaking as Jaclyn
2015
Fear the Walking Dead as Martha (6 episodes)
2014
Gotham as Ethel Peabody (11 episodes)
2014
The Strain as Francis (1 episode)
2013
Home as Esmin
2013
Hostages as Beth Nix (15 episodes)
2013
Newlyweeds as Patrice
2012
Elementary as Judge Marilyn Whitfield (1 episode)
2012
Scandal as Sandra (1 episode)
2008
Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom as Mrs. Robinson
2007
Enchanted as Phoebe Banks
2007
Army Wives (1 episode)
2007
Army Wives as Viola Crawford (2 episodes)
2005
Criminal Minds as Det. Nora Bennett (1 episode)
2005
Romance & Cigarettes as Female Medic
2005
The Closer as Donna Taft (1 episode)
2005
Black in the 80s (3 episodes)
2003
Cold Case as Dina Miller (1 episode)
2001
24 (4 episodes)
2001
The Guardian (1 episode)
1995
University Hospital (9 episodes)
1994
Against Their Will: Women in Prison as Sondra
1994
Above the Rim as Mailika
1992
Jammin': Jelly Roll Morton on Broadway as Herself
1990
Law & Order as Angela Young (1 episode)
1990
Law & Order as Woman (1 episode)
1989
See No Evil, Hear No Evil as Leslie
1986
Crime Story as Junkie Prostitute (1 episode)
1984
The Cosby Show as Iris (1 episode)
1981
American Dream
1971
Great Performances as Self (1 episode)
1970
All My Children (12 episodes)