person

Tonya Pinkins

Personal Info

Known For

Acting

Gender

Female

Birthday

1962-05-30

Place of Birth

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Tonya Pinkins

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.

Also Known For

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60

Romance & Cigarettes

Sep 13, 2005

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NA

An Act of Terror

Jan 01, 2017

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66

Home

Nov 22, 2013

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40

Newlyweeds

Sep 18, 2013

poster

67

See No Evil, Hear No Evil

May 12, 1989

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55

Against Their Will

Oct 29, 1994

poster

NA

The Evolution of Horror Cinema Worldwide

Sep 18, 2025

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NA

American Dream

Apr 26, 1981

poster

48

Aardvark

Apr 13, 2018

poster

75

The Book of Henry

Jun 16, 2017

poster

NA

The Life of Peter Gottlieb

Sep 24, 2024

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NA

Mr. Talented

Aug 11, 2018

poster

80

Jammin': Jelly Roll Morton on Broadway

Nov 02, 1992

poster

70

Above the Rim

Mar 23, 1994

poster

75

Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened...

Nov 18, 2016

poster

48

The Surrogate

Jul 09, 2021

poster

73

My Days of Mercy

Mar 31, 2018

poster

62

Collective: Unconscious

Aug 05, 2016

poster

68

Enchanted

Nov 20, 2007

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56

The Artist's Wife

Sep 25, 2020

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NA

Rasheeda Speaking

Oct 01, 2015

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20

The School for Wives

Oct 24, 2020

poster

62

Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom

Oct 26, 2008

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50

Everybody Dies!

Mar 03, 2016

poster

60

Red Pill

Mar 12, 2021

poster

74

Law & Order

Sep 13, 1990

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78

The Closer

Jun 13, 2005

poster

68

The Guardian

Sep 25, 2001

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70

The Cosby Show

Sep 20, 1984

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77

Cold Case

Sep 28, 2003

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77

24

Nov 06, 2001

poster

83

Criminal Minds

Sep 22, 2005

poster

74

Army Wives

Jun 03, 2007

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65

Women of the Movement

Jan 06, 2022

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NA

University Hospital

Jan 16, 1995

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NA

Black in the 80s

Feb 01, 2005

poster

65

All My Children

Jan 05, 1970

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68

Run the World

May 16, 2021

poster

77

11.22.63

Feb 15, 2016

poster

60

Hostages

Sep 23, 2013

poster

75

Gotham

Sep 22, 2014

poster

46

Random Acts of Flyness

Aug 04, 2018

poster

81

Wu-Tang: An American Saga

Sep 04, 2019

poster

30

The Hunt for the Chicago Strangler

Dec 02, 2021

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71

Scandal

Apr 05, 2012

poster

79

Crime Story

Sep 19, 1986

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73

East New York

Oct 02, 2022

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76

Fear the Walking Dead

Aug 23, 2015

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70

Bull

Sep 20, 2016

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74

Law & Order

Sep 13, 1990

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78

God Friended Me

Sep 30, 2018

poster

76

Elementary

Sep 27, 2012

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75

The Strain

Jul 13, 2014

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74

Army Wives

Jun 03, 2007

poster

55

Great Performances

Jan 28, 1971

poster

69

Madam Secretary

Sep 21, 2014

poster

69

Madam Secretary

Sep 21, 2014