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 th ... e 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.
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| Organization | Category | Movie |
|---|
Hostages
as Beth Nix
Episodes: 15
First Aired: Sep 23, 2013
Gotham
as Ethel Peabody
Episodes: 11
First Aired: Sep 22, 2014
Women of the Movement
as Alma
Episodes: 6
First Aired: Jan 06, 2022
Random Acts of Flyness
as Ripa The Reaper
Episodes: 6
First Aired: Aug 04, 2018
Fear the Walking Dead
as Martha
Episodes: 6
First Aired: Aug 23, 2015
11.22.63
as Mia Mimi Corcoran
Episodes: 4
First Aired: Feb 15, 2016
The Hunt for the Chicago Strangler
as Narradora
Episodes: 4
First Aired: Dec 02, 2021
God Friended Me
as Marsha
Episodes: 3
First Aired: Sep 30, 2018
Army Wives
as Viola Crawford
Episodes: 2
First Aired: Jun 03, 2007
Law & Order
as Woman
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Sep 13, 1990
The Closer
as Donna Taft
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Jun 13, 2005
The Cosby Show
as Iris
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Sep 20, 1984
Cold Case
as Dina Miller
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Sep 28, 2003
Criminal Minds
as Det. Nora Bennett
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Sep 22, 2005
Run the World
as Gwen Greene
Episodes: 1
First Aired: May 16, 2021
Wu-Tang: An American Saga
as Burgess
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Sep 04, 2019
Scandal
as Sandra
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Apr 05, 2012
Crime Story
as Junkie Prostitute
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Sep 19, 1986
East New York
as Shirley Haywood
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Oct 02, 2022
Bull
as Judge Maynard
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Sep 20, 2016
Law & Order
as Angela Young
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Sep 13, 1990
Elementary
as Judge Marilyn Whitfield
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Sep 27, 2012
The Strain
as Francis
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Jul 13, 2014
All My Children
Episodes: 12
First Aired: Jan 05, 1970
University Hospital
Episodes: 9
First Aired: Jan 16, 1995
24
Episodes: 4
First Aired: Nov 06, 2001
Black in the 80s
Episodes: 3
First Aired: Feb 01, 2005
The Guardian
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Sep 25, 2001
Army Wives
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Jun 03, 2007
Great Performances
as Self
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Jan 28, 1971
Popularity History
| Year | Month | Avg | Max | Min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 3 |
| 2024 | 7 | 12 | 23 | 3 |
| 2024 | 8 | 9 | 33 | 2 |
| 2024 | 9 | 6 | 12 | 2 |
| 2024 | 10 | 4 | 10 | 1 |
| 2024 | 11 | 3 | 6 | 1 |
| 2024 | 12 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| 2025 | 1 | 7 | 25 | 1 |
| 2025 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| 2025 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| 2025 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2025 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 8 | 3 | 11 | 0 |