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Tonya Pinkins
Born	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Education	Carnegie Mellon University Columbia College Chicago (BA) California Western School of Law
Occupations	Actress filmmaker
Years active	1980–present
Website	tonyapinkins.com

Tonya Pinkins is an American actress and filmmaker. Her award-winning debut feature film Red Pill was an official selection at the 2021 Pan African Film Festival, won the Best Black Lives Matter Feature and Best First Feature at The Mykonos International Film Festival, Best First Feature at the Luléa Film Festival, and is nominated for awards in numerous festivals around the globe. Her web-series The Red Pilling of America can be heard on her podcast "You Can't Say That!" at BPN.fm/ycst

She is known for her portrayal of Livia Frye on the soap opera All My Children and for her roles on Broadway. She has been nominated for three Tony Awards (winning one), and has won Obie, Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, AUDLECO, Garland, L.A. Drama Critics Circle, Clarence Derwent, and NAACP Theater Awards. She has been nominated for the Olivier, Helen Hayes, Noel, Joseph Jefferson, NAACP Image, Soap Opera Digest, and Ovation Awards. She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Jelly's Last Jam.

Early life and education

Pinkins attended Carnegie Mellon University, but was cast in Merrily We Roll Along and decided to pursue her career, instead.

Pinkins later returned to college, earning an undergraduate degree from Columbia College Chicago in 1996, followed by a year at California Western School of Law in San Diego.

Career

Pinkins 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.

In 2014, she 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 also made 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 character 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 played Amala Motobo on 24. Pinkins played Ethel Peabody on the television show Gotham. In 2016, she played Mimi Corcoran on the Hulu science fiction limited series 11.22.63, based on the Stephen King book of the same name, and starring James Franco and Sarah Gadon. On March 16, 2017, she portrayed Sandra in the ABC television series Scandal.

Pinkins 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.

Pinkins wrote, directed, and starred as Cassandra in Red Pill, to be released in 2020.

Filmography

Film

Television

Stage

References

1. ^ Tonya Pinkins: A Diva, Absolutely!, edgemedianetwork.com; accessed March 31, 2018.
2. Playbill News: Her Shining Hour: Tonya Pinkins Sings Arlen Archived July 19, 2012, at archive.today
3. For a photo of Tonya Pinkins in the role of Mopsa in The Winter's Tale, see Riverside Shakespeare Company
4. "Tony Winner Tonya Pinkins to Star in Milk Like Sugar at Playwrights Horizons". Broadway.com, September 23, 2011.
5. Blank, Matthew (February 23, 2012). "Tonya Pinkins, Saycon Sengbloh and More in Katori Hall's Hurt Village". Playbill.com.
6. Ramos, Dino-Ray (July 7, 2020). "Tonya Pinkins' Thriller 'Red Pill' Puts A Frightening Lens On The 2020 Election". Deadline. Retrieved July 25, 2020.
7. Rich, Frank (November 17, 1981). "A New Sonheim, 'Merrily We Roll Along'". The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
8. "Tonya Pinkins – Broadway Cast & Staff". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League.
9. Gussow, Mel (October 21, 1988). "Reviews/Theater; Skewers for the Political in Kramer's 'Just Say No'". The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
10. Gussow, Mel (November 7, 1991). "Review/Theater; Of Childbearing and Ticking Clocks". The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
11. Gerard, Jeremy (April 27, 1992). "Jelly's Last Jam". Variety. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
12. Richards, David (July 8, 1994). "The Wives Are Merry but Far From Windsor". The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
13. Canby, Vincent (June 16, 1995). "Chronicle of a Death Foretold – A Tale of Fate And Magic, Told Back to Front". The New York Times.
14. Brantley, Ben (March 21, 1997). "Swinging Shakespeare Gets Aboard the A Train". The New York Times.
15. Simonson, Robert (August 14, 1998). "Last Chance: Play On! Plays Only Through Aug. 16 at IL's Goodman". Playbill. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
16. Simonson, Robert (September 20, 1998). "Play On! Tour w/Pinkins & De Shields Starts in Seattle, Sept. 21". Playbill. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
17. Isherwood, Charles (April 14, 2000). "The Wild Party". Variety.
18. Simonson, Robert (August 20, 2000). "Butler, Williams, Pinkins Deliver Last Monologues, Aug. 20". Playbill. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
19. Oxman, Steven (October 30, 2000). "Thoroughly Modern Millie". Variety. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
20. Brantley, Ben (February 15, 2003). "Those Sunny Brothels Where Sin Has No Sting". The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
21. Brantley, Ben (December 1, 2003). "Outsiders Bond in a South of Roiling Change". The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
22. Isherwood, Charles (May 2, 2004). "Caroline, or Change". Variety. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
23. Billington, Michael (October 20, 2006). "Review: Caroline, or Change". The Guardian. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
24. "Photo Flash: Radio Golf at the McCarter Theatre". Broadway World. Wisdom Digital Media. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
25. Rooney, David (May 11, 2007). "Radio Golf". Variety. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
26. Stoudt, Charlotte (May 16, 2008). "Theater Beat: 'And Her Hair Went With Her,' 'Blue Night in the Heart of the West,' '1001' and 'I'd Rather Be Right.'". LA Times. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
27. "'Black Pearl Sings!' 10/5/09". Talkin' Broadway. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
28. "Black Pearl Sings". Ford's Theatre. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
29. Brantley, Ben (June 26, 2011). "Flawed Man Draws a Good Woman". The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
30. Stasio, Marilyn (July 1, 2011). "Measure for Measure". Variety. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
31. Verini, Bob (September 12, 2011). "Milk Like Sugar". Variety.
32. Isherwood, Charles (November 1, 2011). "Teenage Motherhood Is Serious, Especially With Baby Bling at Play". The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
33. Feldman, Adam (February 27, 2012). "Review: Hurt Village". Time Out. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
34. Stasio, Marilyn (June 11, 2012). "Storefront Church". Variety. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
35. Brown, Scott (October 21, 2013). "Theater Review: A Time to Kill". Vulture. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
36. Isherwood, Charles (June 19, 2014). "To Be Young, Besieged and Black". The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
37. Soloski, Alexis (May 7, 2014). "Infidelity Runs Amok, but the Party Never Stops". The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
38. Brown, Donald (December 3, 2014). "Guess Who's Coming to Hospital". New Haven Review. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
39. Isherwood, Charles (February 11, 2015). "Review: 'Rasheeda Speaking' Finds a Chilling Place to Work". The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
40. Gans, Andrew; Villegas, Robert (December 31, 2015). "Exclusive: Tonya Pinkins Issues Unedited, Full Statement Detailing Abrupt Departure from CSC's Mother Courage". Playbill. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
41. Riefe, Jordan (October 9, 2017). "'Time Alone': Theater Review". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
42. Green, Jesse (October 25, 2022). "Review: This Time, 'A Raisin in the Sun' Really Does Explode". The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2024.

External links

• Tonya Pinkins at the Internet Broadway Database
• Tonya Pinkins at IMDb
• Tonya Pinkins at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Official website

• American soap opera actresses
• American stage actresses
• American television actresses
• Living people
• Tony Award winners
• Actresses from Chicago
• Whitney M. Young Magnet High School alumni
• 20th-century American actresses
• 21st-century American actresses
• American film actresses
• Columbia College Chicago alumni
• 20th-century African-American actresses
• 21st-century African-American actresses