Regina Taylor | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Taylor in 2010 | |
| Born | (1960-08-22)August 22, 1960 (age 65)[1] |
| Education | Southern Methodist University (BFA) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1980–present |
Regina Taylor (born August 22, 1960) is an American actress and playwright. She has won several awards throughout her career, including aGolden Globe Award andNAACP Image Award. In July 2017, Taylor was announced as the new Denzel Washington Endowed Chair in Theater atFordham University.[2]
At the age of 12, Taylor moved toMuskogee, Oklahoma. The family later returned to Dallas, where she graduated fromL. G. Pinkston High School in 1977.[3]
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Her earliest professional acting roles were twomade-for-television films while she was studying atSouthern Methodist University: 1980'sNurse (1980) andCrisis at Central High (1981). In the latter movie, she was praised by critic John O'Connor ofThe New York Times for her portrayal ofMinnijean Brown, a member of theLittle Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who braved violence and armed guards to integrateLittle Rock Central High School in 1957.[4]
Her first role to garner widespread attention was that of Mrs. Carter, the drug-addicted mother of a promising young female student, in the 1989 filmLean on Me. She became well known to the television viewing public for her role as Lilly Harper on the early 1990s TV seriesI'll Fly Away. This role won her aGolden Globe award for Best Actress in a Television Drama and also anNAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series. In 2018, Taylor had a role as Dr. Hannah Moshay in season 5 of the highly successful NBC crime thriller seriesThe Blacklist.[5]
Since then she has had various supporting roles in films, such as theSpike Lee filmClockers,Courage Under Fire,A Family Thing,The Negotiator, and for the filmsLosing Isaiah andStrange Justice — a Showtime original film in which she portrayedAnita Hill — and as the lead in the PBS telefilmCora Unashamed, based on aLangston Hughes short story. She was a cast member for all four seasons of theCBS dramaThe Unit.
Taylor is also an accomplished stage actress, and was the first black woman to playJuliet inRomeo and Juliet on Broadway. Her other Broadway credits includeMacbeth andAs You Like It. She appeared in Off-Broadway and regional productions of such plays asJar the Floor (Off-Broadway, 1999),[6]Machinal (Off-Broadway, 1990),L'Illusion (Off-Broadway, 1988),[7] andA Map of the World (Off-Broadway, Public Theatre). She appeared as "Ariel" inThe Tempest at theLa Jolla Playhouse, California in 1987, for which she received a Dramalogue Award.[8][9]
In 2016, Taylor starred in the original pilot ofTime After Time as Vanessa Anders, but was replaced byNicole Ari Parker before the series aired, containing a new pilot with Parker.[10]
As of 2022, Taylor is currently the writer-in-residence at theSignature Theatre, where her playstop. reset. premiered at theoff-Broadway Pershing Square Signature Center on September 8, 2013. Taylor also directed the production.[11][12]
She wroteEscape from Paradise, a one-woman show which was produced at the Goodman Theatre Studio, Chicago, in October 1995. Her short playsWatermelon Rinds andInside the Belly of the Beast were incorporated into a program at the Goodman Theatre Studio in 1994.[13][14] She wrote and appeared in the playMillennium Mambo, a one-woman work, presented at the Goodman Theatre in February 2000.[15] She wrote the playA Night in Tunisia, which premiered during the 2000 Alabama Shakespeare Festival.[16]
In 2000, Taylor won a best new play award from the American Critics' Association forOo-Bla-Dee, a play about 1940s female jazz musicians. The Goodman Theatre produced the play in 1999.[17]
She wrote and directedCrowns, which is a co-production of theMcCarter Theatre, where it premiered in October 2002[18] and theSecond Stage Theatre, produced in December 2002.Crowns is described byPlaybill as a "play-with-gospel-music", and is based on the book of the same name of photographs by Michael Cunningham and journalist Craig Marberry.[19]Crowns has been produced in various locations, including the Meroney Theater inSalisbury, North Carolina with The Piedmont Players[20] in May 2009; theZach Theatre inAustin, Texas in September 2004, thePasadena Playhouse in co-production withEbony Repertory Theatre in July 2009;Syracuse Stage inSyracuse, New York; at theConnecticut Repertory Theatre inStorrs, Connecticut in May 2009 and at the Electric City Playhouse inAnderson, South Carolina in May 2011.Crowns was the most performed musical in the country in 2006. It won four Helen Hayes Awards (for Washington, D.C. productions), including Taylor's win for Best Direction as well as Best Regional Musical.[14][21]
She wrote and directed an adaptation ofAnton Chekhov'sThe Seagull titledDrowning Crow.Drowning Crow was produced on Broadway in February 2004 by theManhattan Theatre Club at theBiltmore Theatre, directed by Marion McClinton.[8][22]
She wrote and directedThe Dreams of Sarah Breedlove, a dramatic rendering of the financial gains and emotional losses of African-American businesswomanMadam C.J. Walker, which received its world premiere production in January 2005 at theAlabama Shakespeare Festival.[23]
Taylor's playMagnolia, set during the beginning of desegregation in Atlanta in 1963, premiered at Chicago'sGoodman Theatre in March 2009 directed byAnna Shapiro.[24][25] after receiving a workshop production in July 2008 at the National Playwrights' Conference at theEugene O'Neill Theater Center inWaterford, Connecticut.[26][27]
Taylor returned to theGoodman Theatre in January and February 2011 for the world premiere of her new play entitledThe Trinity River Plays, a co-production withDallas Theater Center, directed byEthan McSweeny. The production is a trilogy composed ofJar Fly,Rain, andGhoststory.[28]
Taylor's 2017 playA Seat at the Table was commissioned byCarthage College's Theatre Department, the ninth play commissioned as part of their New Play Initiative. The play tells the story of the life of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. The production was invited to the 2018 region 3Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.[29]
According to a DNA analysis, she is descended, mainly, from theMende people ofSierra Leone and theKru people ofLiberia.[30] Taylor is a member ofAlpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
In 1982, she married artist Mario Emes.[31]
