Lisa Gay Hamilton Biography

Lisa Gay Hamilton (born March 25, 1964) is an American film, television, and theater actress known for her role as attorney Rebecca Washington on the ABC legal drama The Practice, and for her critically acclaimed performance as young Sethe in Jonathan Demme's film adaptation of Toni Morrison's Beloved. Her theater credits include Measure for Measure (Isabella), Henry IV Parts I & II (Lady Hotspur), Athol Fugard's, Valley Song and The Ohio State Murders. Hamilton was also an original cast member in the Broadway productions of August Wilson's, The Piano Lesson and Gem of the Ocean.

Early life

Hamilton was born in Los Angeles, California but spent most of her childhood in Stony Brook, New York on Long Island. Her father, Ira Winslow Hamilton, Jr., hailed from Bessemer, Alabama, and her mother, the former Eleanor Albertine "Tina" Blackwell, was from Meridian, Mississippi. Both parents graduated from historically black colleges"?Tina attended Talladega while Ira went to Morehouse"?and they both became successful professionals. Ira worked for a while as an engineer and then went into business as a general contractor. Tina eventually earned a Masters degree in social work and worked for the Girl Scouts for many years.

Hamilton fell in love with theater at an early age. During the 1970s, she saw several off-Broadway productions by the Negro Ensemble Company, including A Soldier's Story and The First Breeze of Summer. She enrolled in Carnegie Mellon University to study theater, but after a year was accepted into New York University's Tisch Drama School. After graduating in 1985, she earned a second BFA from The Juilliard School in 1989.

Career

Early on, Hamilton set her sights on classical theater. In one of her first notable roles, she played opposite Kevin Kline in Measure for Measure in the New York Shakespeare Festival. Her performances in Much Ado About Nothing, Tartuffe, Reckless, Family of Mann, and Two Gentlemen of Verona, earned her a reputation as a serious dramatic actor. In 1995-96, her portrayal of a young, aspiring South African singer in Athol Fugard's Valley Song garnered an Obie Award, the Clarence Derwent Award, the Ovation nomination for best actress, and a Drama Desk nomination. More recently, Hamilton earned critical acclaim, her second Obie, and a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for her role as Suzanne Alexander in Adrienne Kennedy's, The Ohio State Murders.

Hamilton appeared in over two dozen films, including The Truth About Charlie and Beloved for director Jonathan Demme, Clint Eastwood's True Crime, the independent films; Palookaville, Drunks, Showtime's A House Divided, and as Ophelia in director Campbell Scott's film version of Hamlet. She has worked on several projects with director Rodrigo García, notably his films Ten Tiny Love Stories, Nine Lives, and Mother and Child. Honeydripper directed by John Sayles and The Soloist, directed by Joe Wright.

She directed the documentary film Beah: A Black Woman Speaks in 2003. This film, about pioneering black actress Beah Richards, dealt with Hamilton seeking out Richards, an African-American actress who had broken ground making inroads for black actresses. The two women met on the set of Beloved. Richards worked on stage and screen, taking small roles in several motion pictures during the 1950s and 1960s, earning an Oscar nomination for her role as Sidney Portier's mother in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, despite being two years his junior. Richards worked in television as well, making memorable late-career appearances on the series Designing Women and The Practice. Hamilton's film explored Richards' political activism as well as her poetry (her volume, A Black Woman Speaks and Other Poems was published in 1974). After Richards died, Hamilton collaborated with illustrator R. Gregory Christie to turn one of her poems into a children's book. Keep Climbing Girls was published by Simon and Schuster in 2006.

Hamilton played the role of Melissa in Men of a Certain Age, an hour-long comedy-drama starring Ray Romano, Andre Braugher, and Scott Bakula that ran from 2009 to 2011.

In the fall of 2010, Hamilton took a faculty position in the School of Theater for the California Institute of the Arts.

Personal life

In August 2009, Hamilton married historian and writer Robin D. G. Kelley. They reside together in Los Angeles, California.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Krush Groove	Aisha
1990	Reversal of Fortune	Mary
1993	Naked in New York	Marty
1993	Homicide: Life on the Street	Latoya Kennedy	Episode: "A Dog and Pony Show"
1994	New York Undercover	Suki	Episode: "To Protect and Serve"
1994	All My Children	Ceila Wilson #1	Unknown episodes
1995	Law & Order	Denise Johnson	Episode: "Purple Heart"
1995	Twelve Monkeys	Teddy
1996	One Life to Live	Dr. Laura Reed	5 episodes
1997	Jackie Brown	Sheronda
1997-2003	The Practice	Rebecca Washington	145 episodes Nominated"?Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (1999-2001)
1998	Ally McBeal	Rebecca Washington	Episode: "The Inmates"
1998	Halloween H20: 20 Years Later	Shirley Jones
1998	Beloved	Younger Sethe
1999	True Crime	Bonnie Beechum	Nominated"?Black Reel Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated"?Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
1999	Swing Vote	Virginia Mapes	Television movie
2001	Ten Tiny Love Stories	Three
2002	Sex and the City	Kendall	Episode: "Critical Condition"
2002	The Truth About Charlie	Lola Jansco
2002	The Sum of All Fears	Capt. Lorna Shiro
2003	V-Day: Until the Violence Stops	Herself
2003	Beah: A Black Woman Speaks	Director	Director Nominated"?Black Reel Award for Best Director Nominated"?Black Reel Award for Best Original or Adapted Screenplay Nominated"?Black Reel Award for Outstanding Miniseries or Television Film
2004	The L Word	Art Show Attendee	Episode: "Losing It"
2005	Nine Lives	Holly	Nominated"?Gotham Award for Best Cast
2005	ER	Nadine Hopkins	Episode: "All About Christmas Eve"
2006	Without a Trace	Sherise Gibbs	Episode: "The Calm Before"
2006-2013	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Teresa Randall	3 episodes
2007	Numb3rs	Sari Kinshasa	Episode: "Money for Nothing"
2007	Honeydripper	Delilah
2008	Deception	Detective Russo
2009	The Soloist	Jennifer Ayers
2009	Mother and Child	Leticia
2009-2011	Men of a Certain Age	Melissa	20 episodes
2011	Beastly	Zola
2011	Take Shelter	Kendra	Nominated"?Gotham Award for Best Cast
2012	Southland	Melanie	Episode: "Identity"
2013	Lovelace	Marsha
2013	Grey's Anatomy	Dr. Connie Ryan	2 episodes