Biography
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 ...
Known For
Complete Filmography
The Evolution of Horror Cinema Worldwide
2025
as Horror Film Expert
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 ba...
The Life of Peter Gottlieb
2024
as Dean Fendleman
As community college professor Peter Gottlieb's life spirals out of control, a strange friendship blossoms with one of his students, Sabrina Carbonowi...
The Surrogate
2021
as Karen Weatherston-Harris
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 threate...
Red Pill
2021
as Cassandra
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 a...
The School for Wives
2020
as Arnolphe
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 the...
The Artist's Wife
2020
as Liza Caldwell
Claire Smythson, wife of the renowned abstract artist Richard Smythson, is plunged into a late-life crisis when her husband is diagnosed with Alzheime...
Mr. Talented
2018
as Valerie Brown
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 himself...
Aardvark
2018
as Abigail
The aardvark has evolved to be one of a kind. You could say the same of Josh Norman.
My Days of Mercy
2018
as Agatha
The daughter of a man on death row falls in love with a woman on the opposing side of her family's political cause.
The Book of Henry
2017
as Principal Wilder
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 ...
An Act of Terror
2017
as Mary Church Terrell
The true story of Virginia Christian, a 16-year-old African American girl accused of murder in the Jim Crow South.
Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened...
2016
as Self
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 30-...
Collective: Unconscious
2016
as Ripa the Reaper
A man and his grandmother hide out from an ominous broadcast. The Grim Reaper hosts a TV show. The formerly incarcerated recount and reinterpret their...
Everybody Dies!
2016
as Ripa the Reaper
In this recreated public access television show, Ripa the Grim Reaper teaches black kids about the day they'll die.
Rasheeda Speaking
2015
as Jaclyn
This tense workplace thriller examines the realities of so-called “post-racial” America. Co-workers are driven apart by the machinations of their boss...
Home
2013
as Esmin
The story of a man suffering from mental illness who attempts to rebuild his life.
Newlyweeds
2013
as Patrice
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.
Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom
2008
as Mrs. Robinson
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 - threa...
Enchanted
2007
as Phoebe Banks
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 str...
Romance & Cigarettes
2005
as Female Medic
Ironworker Nick lives with his wife, Kitty, and three daughters. When he meets a significantly younger woman, Tula, he starts an affair with her, much...
Against Their Will
1994
as Sondra
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 gua...
Above the Rim
1994
as Mailika
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 fal...
Jammin': Jelly Roll Morton on Broadway
1992
as Herself
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 ...
See No Evil, Hear No Evil
1989
as Leslie
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, ...
American Dream
1981
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 ar...