Bio

Tonya Pinkins’ hit cabaret shows “Unplugged,” “Bring On The Men” and “Hurricane Ethel” have been performed around the country. In 2012 Tonya won the Lucille Lortel award for best supporting actress for her performance as a chain smoking mom in Milk Like Sugar. 2011-2012, she played a wide range of roles from the Countess in All’s Well That Ends Well-NYSF, Mistress Overdone in Measure for Measure-NYSF, a feisty great grandmother in Katori Hall’s Hurt Village-Signature Theater and a Bronx Latina in John Patrick Shanley’s end to the Doubt trilogy: Storefront Church– Atlantic Theater. Tonya won the Obie Audelco, Lortel, Garland, NAACP Theater and LA Drama Critics awards and was nominated for the Olivier, Tony, Dramaleague, Drama Desk and Outer Critic’s Circle awards for her performance as the title character in Caroline or Change. She won the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critic’s Circle, Monarch and Clarence Derwent Awards for the role of Sweet Anita in Jelly’s Last Jam opposite Gregory Hines. Other broadway appearances include Play On (Tony Nominee), The Wild Party, Radio Golf, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and the original broadway cast of Merrily We Roll Along. Her regional theater performances have been nominated for the Noel, Helen Hayes, Ovation and Joseph Jefferson awards. She portrayed Livia on “All My Children” and Heather Dalton on “As The World Turns.” In upcoming films Tonya appears opposite Woody Allen in John Turturro’s “Fading Gigolo”, Shaka King’s “Newlyweeds”, and Jono Oliver’s “Home.” Tonya has appeared in Disney’s “Enchanted,” “Above the Rim,” “Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom,” “Army Wives,” “24,” and “Criminal Minds,” among others. She is the author of Get Over Yourself!: How to Drop the Drama and Claim the Life You Deserve-Hyperion Books, and the creator of The Actorpreneur AttitudeTM. She teaches a performance workshop, Outacting Singers, monthly. Visit her @TonyaPinkins on Twitter and at www.TonyaPinkins.com.