Tonya Pinkins

Tonya Pinkins

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.

  • Title: Tonya Pinkins
  • Popularity: 4.213
  • Known For: Acting
  • Birthday: 1962-05-30
  • Place of Birth: Chicago, Illinois, USA
  • Homepage: http://www.tonyapinkins.com
  • Also Known As:
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Tonya Pinkins Movies

  • 2005
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    Romance & Cigarettes

    Romance & Cigarettes

    6 2005 HD

    Ironworker Nick lives with his wife, Kitty, and three daughters. When he meets a significantly younger woman, Tula, he starts an affair with her,...

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  • 2017
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    An Act of Terror

    An Act of Terror

    1 2017 HD

    The true story of Virginia Christian, a 16-year-old African American girl accused of murder in the Jim Crow South.

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  • 2013
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    Home

    Home

    6.6 2013 HD

    The story of a man suffering from mental illness who attempts to rebuild his life.

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  • 2013
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    Newlyweeds

    Newlyweeds

    4.375 2013 HD

    A match made in stoner heaven turns into a love triangle gone awry when Lyle can't decide which matters most, Nina or Mary Jane.

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  • 1989
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    See No Evil, Hear No Evil

    See No Evil, Hear No Evil

    6.729 1989 HD

    A 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...

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  • 1994
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    Against Their Will: Women in Prison

    Against Their Will: Women in Prison

    8 1994 HD

    Behind 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...

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  • 2025
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    The Evolution of Horror Cinema Worldwide

    The Evolution of Horror Cinema Worldwide

    1 2025 HD

    Why do people no longer see this type of stories nowadays? How can this notion be awakened? Which films should begin to feed back from the past and...

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  • 1981
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    American Dream

    American Dream

    1 1981 HD

    A 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...

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  • 2018
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    Aardvark

    Aardvark

    5 2018 HD

    The aardvark has evolved to be one of a kind. You could say the same of Josh Norman.

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  • 2017
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    The Book of Henry

    The Book of Henry

    7.5 2017 HD

    Susan, 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...

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  • 2024
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    The Life of Peter Gottlieb

    The Life of Peter Gottlieb

    1 2024 HD

    As community college professor Peter Gottlieb's life spirals out of control, a strange friendship blossoms with one of his students, Sabrina...

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  • 2018
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    Mr. Talented

    Mr. Talented

    1 2018 HD

    Inspired by a true story, Mr. Talented follows a space-obsessed photographer whose life and sanity unravels as he struggles to make a name for...

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  • 1992
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    Jammin': Jelly Roll Morton on Broadway

    Jammin': Jelly Roll Morton on Broadway

    8 1992 HD

    A 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...

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  • 1994
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    Above the Rim

    Above the Rim

    6.907 1994 HD

    Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star...

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  • 2016
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    Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened...

    Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened...

    7.5 2016 HD

    This film from acclaimed theater director Lonny Price charts the journey of the original cast of Stephen Sondheim's "Merrily We Roll Along" in the...

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  • 2021
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    The Surrogate

    The Surrogate

    4.9 2021 HD

    Jess 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...

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  • 2018
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    My Days of Mercy

    My Days of Mercy

    7.349 2018 HD

    The daughter of a man on death row falls in love with a woman on the opposing side of her family's political cause.

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  • 2016
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    Collective: Unconscious

    Collective: Unconscious

    6.2 2016 HD

    A man and his grandmother hide out from an ominous broadcast. The Grim Reaper hosts a TV show. The formerly incarcerated recount and reinterpret...

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  • 2007
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    Enchanted

    Enchanted

    6.827 2007 HD

    The beautiful princess Giselle is banished by an evil queen from her magical, musical animated land and finds herself in the gritty reality of the...

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  • 2020
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    The Artist's Wife

    The Artist's Wife

    5.6 2020 HD

    Claire Smythson, wife of the renowned abstract artist Richard Smythson, is plunged into a late-life crisis when her husband is diagnosed with...

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  • 2015
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    Rasheeda Speaking

    Rasheeda Speaking

    1 2015 HD

    This tense workplace thriller examines the realities of so-called “post-racial” America. Co-workers are driven apart by the machinations...

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  • 2020
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    The School for Wives

    The School for Wives

    2 2020 HD

    The School For Wives, at its core, is about gender power dynamics. We are looking forward to telling this classic 17th century French tale through...

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  • 2008
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    Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom

    Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom

    6.2 2008 HD

    As Noah and Wade prepare to marry in Martha's Vineyard, the personal problems of their friends - and the unexpected arrival of rapper Baby Gat -...

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  • 2016
    imgMovies

    Everybody Dies!

    Everybody Dies!

    5 2016 HD

    In this recreated public access television show, Ripa the Grim Reaper teaches black kids about the day they'll die.

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  • 2021
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    Red Pill

    Red Pill

    6 2021 HD

    Set over Halloween weekend 2020, this political thriller follows six friends as they head into "red" country to canvas white women to vote. They are...

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  • 1990
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    Law & Order

    Law & Order

    7.391 1990 HD

    In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until...

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  • 2005
    imgS7 E21

    The Closer

    The Closer

    7.862 2005 HD

    Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson transfers from Atlanta to LA to head up a special unit of the LAPD that handles sensitive, high-profile...

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  • 2001
    imgS3 E22

    The Guardian

    The Guardian

    6.9 2001 HD

    Nick Fallin is a hotshot lawyer working at his father's ultrasuccessful Pittsburgh law firm. Unfortunately, the high life has gotten the best of...

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  • 1984
    imgS8 E25

    The Cosby Show

    The Cosby Show

    7 1984 HD

    The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until...

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  • 2003
    imgS7 E22

    Cold Case

    Cold Case

    7.8 2003 HD

    The Philadelphia homicide squad's lone female detective finds her calling when she is assigned cases that have never been solved. Detective Lilly...

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  • 2001
    imgS9 E12

    24

    24

    7.8 2001 HD

    Counterterrorism 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...

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  • 2005
    imgS17 E10

    Criminal Minds

    Criminal Minds

    8.3 2005 HD

    An elite team of FBI profilers analyze the country's most twisted criminal minds, anticipating their next moves before they strike again. The...

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  • 2007
    imgS7 E13

    Army Wives

    Army Wives

    7.5 2007 HD

    Army Wives is an American drama series that follows the lives of four army wives, one army husband, and their families.

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  • 2022
    imgS1 E6

    Women of the Movement

    Women of the Movement

    7.5 2022 HD

    A limited series focusing on Mamie Till Mobley, who devoted her life to seeking justice for her son Emmett Till following his brutal murder in the...

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  • 1995
    imgS1 E9

    University Hospital

    University Hospital

    1 1995 HD

    University Hospital is an American medical drama that aired from January 16 until May 1, 1995.

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  • 2005
    imgS1 E3

    Black in the 80s

    Black in the 80s

    1 2005 HD

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  • 1970
    imgS43 E182

    All My Children

    All My Children

    6.325 1970 HD

    All 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...

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  • 2021
    imgS2 E8

    Run the World

    Run the World

    7 2021 HD

    The story of a group of Black women who work, live, and play in Harlem as they strive for world domination. They're not only surviving – but...

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  • 2016
    imgS1 E8

    11.22.63

    11.22.63

    7.8 2016 HD

    An 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.

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  • 2013
    imgS1 E15

    Hostages

    Hostages

    5.9 2013 HD

    A high-octane suspense drama that centers on Dr. Ellen Sanders, a premier surgeon thrust into a chilling political conspiracy when she and her family...

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  • 2014
    imgS5 E12

    Gotham

    Gotham

    7.6 2014 HD

    Everyone 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....

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  • 2018
    imgS2 E6

    Random Acts of Flyness

    Random Acts of Flyness

    4.6 2018 HD

    Late-night series featuring a mix of vérité documentary, musical performances, surrealist melodrama and humorous animation as a...

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  • 2019
    imgS3 E10

    Wu-Tang: An American Saga

    Wu-Tang: An American Saga

    8.235 2019 HD

    In 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...

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  • 2021
    imgS1 E4

    The Hunt for the Chicago Strangler

    The Hunt for the Chicago Strangler

    3 2021 HD

    Dives deep into unsolved murders of women that have been found strangled across Chicago.

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  • 2012
    imgS7 E18

    Scandal

    Scandal

    7.155 2012 HD

    Everyone has secrets and Olivia Pope has dedicated her life to protecting and defending the public images of the elite by keeping those secrets under...

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  • 1986
    imgS2 E22

    Crime Story

    Crime Story

    7.953 1986 HD

    The hard-boiled saga of hair-trigger cop Lieutenant Mike Torello and his obsessive pursuit of ruthless gangster Ray Luca.

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  • 2022
    imgS1 E21

    East New York

    East New York

    7.4 2022 HD

    Regina Haywood is the newly promoted deputy inspector of East New York, a working-class neighborhood at the edge of Brooklyn. She leads a diverse...

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  • 2015
    imgS8 E12

    Fear the Walking Dead

    Fear the Walking Dead

    7.663 2015 HD

    What 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,...

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  • 2016
    imgS6 E22

    Bull

    Bull

    7 2016 HD

    Dr. Jason Bull is the brilliant, brash, and charming founder of a hugely successful trial consulting firm.

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  • 1990
    imgS24 E8

    Law & Order

    Law & Order

    7.391 1990 HD

    In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until...

    img
  • 2018
    imgS2 E22

    God Friended Me

    God Friended Me

    7.889 2018 HD

    A self-proclaimed "pesky atheist" is encouraged to help strangers by someone claiming to be God who friends him on Facebook.

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  • 2012
    imgS7 E13

    Elementary

    Elementary

    7.6 2012 HD

    A 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...

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  • 2014
    imgS4 E10

    The Strain

    The Strain

    7.477 2014 HD

    A 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...

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  • 2007
    imgS7 E13

    Army Wives

    Army Wives

    7.5 2007 HD

    Army Wives is an American drama series that follows the lives of four army wives, one army husband, and their families.

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  • 1971
    imgS52 E3

    Great Performances

    Great Performances

    5.2 1971 HD

    The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular...

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