LisaGay Hamilton (born March , ) is an American actress who has
portrayed roles in films, television, and on stage. She is best known
for her role as attorney Rebecca Washington on the ABC legal drama The
Practice (-). She also portrayed Melissa Thoreau on the TNT
comedy-drama Men of a Certain Age (-), Celia Jones on the Netflix
series House of Cards (), Suzanne Simms on the Hulu series Chance (),
and Kayla Price on the Hulu series The First ().Hamilton's film
credits include roles in Monkeys (), Jackie Brown (), Beloved (),
True Crime (), The Sum of All Fears (), The Soloist (), Beastly (),
Beautiful Boy (), and Vice (). 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. In she won a Peabody Award for
creating and directing the documentary film Beah: A Black Woman
Speaks.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
collegesâ€"Tina attended Talladega while Ira went to Morehouseâ€"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 master's 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 s, 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 where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater
in . She then pursued graduate studies at The Juilliard School where
she earned a M.A. in Drama in .
portrayed roles in films, television, and on stage. She is best known
for her role as attorney Rebecca Washington on the ABC legal drama The
Practice (-). She also portrayed Melissa Thoreau on the TNT
comedy-drama Men of a Certain Age (-), Celia Jones on the Netflix
series House of Cards (), Suzanne Simms on the Hulu series Chance (),
and Kayla Price on the Hulu series The First ().Hamilton's film
credits include roles in Monkeys (), Jackie Brown (), Beloved (),
True Crime (), The Sum of All Fears (), The Soloist (), Beastly (),
Beautiful Boy (), and Vice (). 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. In she won a Peabody Award for
creating and directing the documentary film Beah: A Black Woman
Speaks.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
collegesâ€"Tina attended Talladega while Ira went to Morehouseâ€"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 master's 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 s, 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 where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater
in . She then pursued graduate studies at The Juilliard School where
she earned a M.A. in Drama in .
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