
Tonya Pinkins
Actor · b. 1962 · Chicago, Illinois, USA
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.
Series24
TV7.3CrimeDramaIn cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until someone is taken into custody. The district attorney's office then builds a case to convict the perpetrator by proving the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Working together, these expert teams navigate all sides of the complex criminal justice system to make New York a safer place.
Law & Order
1990 · 722 votes
TV8.3CrimeDramaAn elite team of FBI profilers analyze the country's most twisted criminal minds, anticipating their next moves before they strike again. The Behavioral Analysis Unit's most experienced agent is David Rossi, a founding member of the BAU who returns to help the team solve new cases.
Criminal Minds
2005 · 4.2K votes
TV7.5Sci-Fi & FantasyDramaA high concept thriller that tells the story of Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, the head of the Center for Disease Control Canary Team in New York City. He and his team are called upon to investigate a mysterious viral outbreak with hallmarks of an ancient and evil strain of vampirism. As the strain spreads, Eph, his team, and an assembly of everyday New Yorkers, wage war for the fate of humanity itself.
The Strain
2014 · 2.1K votes
TV7.8Action & AdventureDramaCounterterrorism agent Jack Bauer fights the bad guys of the world, a day at a time. With each week's episode unfolding in real-time, "24" covers a single day in the life of Bauer each season.
24
2001 · 1.9K votes
TV7.7CrimeDramaThe Philadelphia homicide squad's lone female detective finds her calling when she is assigned cases that have never been solved. Detective Lilly Rush combines her natural instincts with the updated technology available today to bring about justice for all the victims she can.
Cold Case
2003 · 461 votes
TV7.6DramaMysteryA modern-day drama about a crime-solving duo that cracks the NYPD's most impossible cases. Following his fall from grace in London and a stint in rehab, eccentric Sherlock escapes to Manhattan where his wealthy father forces him to live with his worst nightmare - a sober companion, Dr. Watson.
Elementary
2012 · 1.9K votes
TV7.8CrimeDramaDeputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson transfers from Atlanta to LA to head up a special unit of the LAPD that handles sensitive, high-profile murder cases. Johnson's quirky personality and hard-nosed approach often rubs her colleagues the wrong way, but her reputation as one of the world's best interrogator eventually wins over even her toughest critics.
The Closer
2005 · 357 votes
TV7.2DramaEveryone has secrets and Olivia Pope has dedicated her life to protecting and defending the public images of the elite by keeping those secrets under wraps. Pope and her team are at the top of their game when it comes to getting the job done for their clients, but it becomes apparent that these "gladiators in suits," who specialize in fixing the lives of other people, have trouble fixing those closest at hand -- their own.
Scandal
2012 · 623 votes
TV7.6DramaCrimeEveryone knows the name Commissioner Gordon. He is one of the crime world's greatest foes, a man whose reputation is synonymous with law and order. But what is known of Gordon's story and his rise from rookie detective to Police Commissioner? What did it take to navigate the multiple layers of corruption that secretly ruled Gotham City, the spawning ground of the world's most iconic villains? And what circumstances created them – the larger-than-life personas who would become Catwoman, The Penguin, The Riddler, Two-Face and The Joker?
Gotham
2014 · 3.8K votes
TV6.1ComedyDocumentaryThe best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.
Great Performances
1971 · 25 votes
TV6.4SoapAll My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC for 41 years, from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011, and on The Online Network since April 29, 2013 via Hulu, Hulu Plus, and iTunes. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia which is modeled on the actual Philadelphia suburb of Rosemont.
All My Children
1970 · 29 votes
TV7.1CrimeDramaDr. Jason Bull is the brilliant, brash, and charming founder of a hugely successful trial consulting firm.
Bull
2016 · 408 votes
TV7.0ComedyFamilyThe Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992. The show focuses on the Huxtable family, an upper middle-class African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York.
The Cosby Show
1984 · 514 votes
TV7.5DramaArmy Wives is an American drama series that follows the lives of four army wives, one army husband, and their families.
Army Wives
2007 · 37 votes
TV7.0DramaWar & PoliticsAfter years away from the CIA, Elizabeth McCord is pulled back into the political arena. The newly appointed Secretary of State is tough, fair, and smart, driving international diplomacy, wrangling office politics, and circumventing protocol as she negotiates global and domestic issues, both at the White House and at home.
Madam Secretary
2014 · 346 votes
TV7.6Action & AdventureDramaWhat did the world look like as it was transforming into the horrifying apocalypse depicted in "The Walking Dead"? This spin-off set in Los Angeles, following new characters as they face the beginning of the end of the world, will answer that question.
Fear the Walking Dead
2015 · 5.2K votes
TV7.1DramaComedyEvery day is a matter of life and death in a hectic New York City hospital, but for Nurse Jackie that's the easiest part. Between chronic back pain that won't quit, and a personal life on the constant edge of collapse, it's going to take a white lie here, a bent rule there, and a handful of secret strategies to relieve the pain, and stay one step ahead of total disaster.
Nurse Jackie
2009 · 262 votes
TV7.0DramaNick Fallin is a hotshot lawyer working at his father's ultrasuccessful Pittsburgh law firm. Unfortunately, the high life has gotten the best of Nick. Arrested for drug use, he's sentenced to do 1,500 hours of community service, somehow to be squeezed into his 24/7 cutthroat world of mergers, acquisitions and board meetings. Reluctantly, he's now The Guardian - a part-time child advocate at Legal Aid Services, where one case after another is an eye-opening instance of kids caught up in difficult circumstances.
The Guardian
2001 · 60 votes
TV8.0CrimeDramaThe hard-boiled saga of hair-trigger cop Lieutenant Mike Torello and his obsessive pursuit of ruthless gangster Ray Luca.
Crime Story
1986 · 76 votes
TV7.7DramaFamilyA self-proclaimed "pesky atheist" is encouraged to help strangers by someone claiming to be God who friends him on Facebook.
God Friended Me
2018 · 210 votes
TV8.2DramaIn the early 1990s in New York, during the height of the crack cocaine epidemic, a visionary musician named Bobby Diggs aka The RZA begins to form a super group of a dozen young, black men, who will eventually rise to become one of the unlikeliest success stories in American music history.
Wu-Tang: An American Saga
2019 · 306 votes
TV7.8DramaSci-Fi & FantasyAn English teacher travels back in time to prevent the Kennedy assassination, but discovers he is attached to the life he has made in a bygone era.
11.22.63
2016 · 1.8K votes
TV7.1CrimeDramaRegina Haywood is the newly promoted deputy inspector of East New York, a working-class neighborhood at the edge of Brooklyn. She leads a diverse group of officers and detectives, some of whom are reluctant to deploy her creative methods of serving and protecting in the midst of social upheaval and the early seeds of gentrification.
East New York
2022 · 46 votes
TV5.9DramaA high-octane suspense drama that centers on Dr. Ellen Sanders, a premier surgeon thrust into a chilling political conspiracy when she and her family are held captive in their home by rogue FBI Agent Duncan Carlisle, a desperate man doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, who orders Dr. Sanders to assassinate the President when she operates on him.
Hostages
2013 · 92 votes
Movies21
Movie6.8ComedyFamilyThe beautiful princess Giselle is banished by an evil queen from her magical, musical animated land and finds herself in the gritty reality of the streets of modern-day Manhattan. Shocked by this strange new environment that doesn't operate on a "happily ever after" basis, Giselle is now adrift in a chaotic world badly in need of enchantment. But when Giselle begins to fall in love with a charmingly flawed divorce lawyer who has come to her aid - even though she is already promised to a perfect fairy tale prince back home - she has to wonder: Can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world?
Enchanted
2007 · 5.8K votes
Movie6.8ComedyCrimeA murder takes place in the shop of David Lyons, a deaf man who fails to hear the gunshot being fired. Outside, blind man Wally Karue hears the shot, but cannot see the perpetrator. Both are arrested, but escape to form an unlikely partnership. Being chased by both the law AND the original killers, can the pair work together to outwit them all?
See No Evil, Hear No Evil
1989 · 1.1K votes
Movie7.5DramaThrillerSusan, a single mother of two, works as a waitress in a small town. Her son, Henry, is an 11-year-old genius who not only manages the family finances but acts as emotional support for his mother and younger brother. When Henry discovers that the girl next door has a terrible secret, he implores Susan to take matters into her own hands.
The Book of Henry
2017 · 1.4K votes
Movie7.1CrimeDramaStory of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.
Above the Rim
1994 · 248 votes
Movie6.1ComedyMusicIronworker Nick lives with his wife, Kitty, and three daughters. When he meets a significantly younger woman, Tula, he starts an affair with her, much to the chagrin of his wife, and his life is thrown into upheaval. Kitty kicks Nick out of the house, and he is forced to make some difficult decisions.
Romance & Cigarettes
2005 · 171 votes
Movie7.3RomanceDramaThe daughter of a man on death row falls in love with a woman on the opposing side of her family's political cause.
My Days of Mercy
2018 · 252 votes
Movie7.5DocumentaryThis film from acclaimed theater director Lonny Price charts the journey of the original cast of Stephen Sondheim's "Merrily We Roll Along" in the 30-plus years since the musical debuted on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre in 1981.
Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened...
2016 · 19 votes
- MovieDrama
A second-generation immigrant rideshare driver defies his family’s expectations to pursue his childhood love of acting, only to watch his housing security collapse as he chases the dream. As the looming specter of homelessness closes in, he maintains a carefully curated social media persona that hides his growing desperation, navigating the beautiful and brutal realities of a city built on perception. Described as a dramatic odyssey with comedic undertones, the film is a raw, soulful portrait of ambition, identity, and the cost of chasing what you love.
Movie5.4DramaClaire Smythson, wife of the renowned abstract artist Richard Smythson, is plunged into a late-life crisis when her husband is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and is in danger of not completing the paintings for his final show.
The Artist's Wife
2020 · 12 votes
Movie4.4DramaThe story of an American soccer player trying to make it big who turns to Pele, the greatest soccer player of all time, for guidance.
Hotshot
1987 · 7 votes
Movie6.9DramaThe story of a man suffering from mental illness who attempts to rebuild his life.
Home
2013 · 10 votes
Movie6.1ComedyDramaAs Noah and Wade prepare to marry in Martha's Vineyard, the personal problems of their friends - and the unexpected arrival of rapper Baby Gat - threatens to permanently end their relationship.
Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom
2008 · 16 votes
Movie4.1DramaJess is thrilled to be the surrogate for her best friend and his husband, but when a prenatal test comes back, it creates a moral dilemma that threatens their friendship.
The Surrogate
2021 · 14 votes
Movie4.7DramaThe aardvark has evolved to be one of a kind. You could say the same of Josh Norman.
Aardvark
2018 · 23 votes
Movie4.2ComedyDramaA match made in stoner heaven turns into a love triangle gone awry when Lyle can't decide which matters most, Nina or Mary Jane.
Newlyweeds
2013 · 11 votes
MovieComedyRomanceAs community college professor Peter Gottlieb's life spirals out of control, a strange friendship blossoms with one of his students, Sabrina Carbonowitz. When Sabrina goes missing, Peter is pinned for the whole thing.
Movie6.0HorrorThrillerSet over Halloween weekend 2020, this political thriller follows six friends as they head into "red" country to canvas white women to vote. They are armed with idealism and determination, but they should have brought heavy artillery. As they explore the creepy house they booked for the weekend distressing clues indicate that they should get out of there, but they decide to stay. They should have brought heavy artillery.
Red Pill
2021 · 1 votes
Movie5.8TV MovieCrimeBehind prison walls, corruption, sex and power make criminals out of the guards and heroes out of the guarded. For more than a decade, the lawless guards inside a maximum security women's prison have reigned with impunity - rape, sex for money and illegal favors have become the norm until one woman decides to battle the system. Leading a group of inmates on a risky life-or-death struggle for justice, a ten year silence is finally broken, exposing the twisted truth to the world and enabling the prisoners the freedom to live without fear.
Against Their Will
1994 · 5 votes
Movie9.0TV MovieDramaA family moves from an affluent Chicago suburb to the mixed inner-city neighborhood where the father grew up, with the idea of giving the kids, who are becoming materialistic snobs, the feel of a big city environment.
American Dream
1981 · 1 votes
Movie6.2DramaMysteryA man and his grandmother hide out from an ominous broadcast. The Grim Reaper hosts a TV show. The formerly incarcerated recount and reinterpret their first days of freedom. A suburban mom's life is upturned by the beast growing inside of her. And a high school gym teacher runs drills from inside a volcano. What happens when five of independent film's most adventurous filmmakers join together to literally adapt each other’s dreams for the screen?
Collective: Unconscious
2016 · 9 votes
Movie8.0DocumentaryA behind the scenes look at the Broadway production of Jelly's Last Jam, including a tribute to jazz musician and composer Jelly Roll Morton. Gregory Hines and George C. Wolfe, who wrote the book for Jelly's Last Jam, are interviewed. Includes scenes from the show.
Jammin': Jelly Roll Morton on Broadway
1992 · 3 votes