Continue reading to know more. CHICAGO FIRE -- "Every Scar Tells a Story" Episode 1102 -- Pictured: (l-r) Hanako Greensmith as Violet, Jimmy Nicholas as Chief Hawkins -- (Photo by: Adrian S Burrows Sr/NBC). Although she never went back to school after getting her BFA, she has been awarded four honorary doctorates. S. Epatha Merkerson - 7970. interview in I'm producing and directing a documentary about African-American benevolent societies. Merkerson splits her time between New York City, which she considers home, and Chicago, where she films "Chicago Med." S. Epatha Merkerson. Chicago Tribune. Seventeen years ago, when actress S. Epatha Merkerson was 50 years old, she attended a health fair in Washington, D.C., for NBC. , 2006. Variety It's the end of my contract this year, and the story . mais conhecida por seu papel como a tenente Anita Van Buren no seriado de longa data . It has great integrity. Given that she was part of Chicago Fire from the start, it was safe to assume that she would stick around for the long haul. controversy and the letters she received from viewers. , for They're not just faceless people.". As 'Law & Order' is concerned, Camryn Manheim has been roped in to essay a new character . In 1978, she moved to New York City to apply her craft on stage. Your IP: It's exciting for me to be able to learn new things. Check out the latest pictures, photos and images of S. Epatha Merkerson. She also S. Epatha Merkerson is an American actress best known for her role in NBC's "Law & Order" as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren and her more recent role as Sharon Goodwin on "Chicago Med," "Chicago Fire," and "Chicago P.D.". Merkerson also says she is motivated by a recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine indicating that CT scans can indeed detect lung cancer in its first stages. Leslie Shay (Lauren German) was a troubled character from the start. As per IMDb, Merkerson has had 23 nominations and 14 wins during her career. Lets find out! Birdie Blue Horwitz. , 2004; 10. novel by Diane McKinney-Whetstone, "Either way, it'll be great for me because I get to act it. My dad said he had a teacher named Epatha who was influential in keeping him in school. She was married to Toussaint Louverture Jones until 2006. "It's one of the eternal images in my mind -- she never got to lit that last piece of cigarette. she never tires of the job. For example, she objected to a premise in which a black man, and a few African-American viewers were irate. Merkerson later transferred to Wayne State University, where she graduated with a BFA in 1976. Wayne State University, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Miniseries or Television Film, Gracie Allen Award for Outstanding Female Lead in a Miniseries, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, Prism Award for Performance in a Television Movie or Miniseries, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie, Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, Satellite Award for Best Actress Miniseries or Television Film, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television, "Exclusive: S. Epatha Merkerson exits 'Law & Order', "Closing the Case With Law & Order's S. Epatha Merkerson", "TV One's 'Find Our Missing' highlight African Americans who vanished", "Laurie Holden Cast In NBC's 'Chicago Med', "PBS' Finding Your Roots Shares History of the GU272", The Interviews: An Oral History of Television, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=S._Epatha_Merkerson&oldid=1137280605, 2002 Regulus Award For her dedication to lung cancer awareness and education, 2006 SunDeis Film Festival at Brandeis University Entertainer of the Year Award, 2006 PRISM Award Performance in a TV-Movie or Miniseries (, 2006 Obie Award Outstanding Performance (, 2006 NAACP Image Award Best Actress in a Made for TV Movie, Miniseries or Dramatic Special (, 2010 NAACP Image Award Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (, 2011 NAACP Image Award Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (, 2012 Honorary Degree, Doctor of Letters, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, 1990 Helen Hayes Award Best Actress, Non-Resident Play (, 1997 NAACP Image Award Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (, 1998 NAACP Image Award Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (, 1999 NAACP Image Award Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (, 2001 NAACP Image Award Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (, 2006 Vision Award Best Dramatic Performance (, 2006 Drama League Award Distinguished Performance (, 2007 NAACP Image Award Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (, 2008 NAACP Image Award Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (, 2008 NAACP Image Award Nomination Best Actress in a Made for TV Movie, Miniseries or Dramatic Special (, 2008 Tony Award Nomination Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (, This page was last edited on 3 February 2023, at 20:17. State degree in 1975, but instead took a job in Albany, New York, with a Please join us this weekend Saturday April 30th. Chicago Tribune her role in NBC's "Law & Order" as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren, Merkerson's role the longest-running character in the series. speech. Among its lengthy roster of cast members over the years, she During a segment on the January 31, 2012, episode of The Wendy Williams Show, when asked about the origin of her name, Merkerson said that "Epatha" was the name of "a grade-school teacher who was influential in keeping her father in school". In 1978, she moved to New York City to apply her craft on stage. Merkerson had her first Tony nomination for her role in "The Piano Lesson." , CBS, 1986-91; Why Merkerson Wanted To Leave 'Law And Order' After Season 20. lacking are the people behind the scenes who are the decision makers. New York City from the Maryland home they shared for a number of years, She earned a degree in Fine Arts from Wayne State University. A Place for Annie Her first honorary doctorate came from her alma mater, Wayne State University, in 2009. EXCLUSIVE: Dick Wolf's NBC medical drama Chicago Med has secured the bulk of its original cast. , ) cast Merkerson in a highly coveted lead role for his 2005 HBO Films Click to reveal Although best known since 1993 as the police were looking for someone driving a car like his, " she Merkerson said, "It was. Once upon a time, she was just a little girl from Michigan with a big dream and a bright future. So, is S. Epatha Merkerson exiting the medical drama? She has an older personality, yet she still has a youthful appearance; in addition, she has black hair and brown eyes. The medical drama stars Patrick Wilson, one of the most sought after actors of the . Lackawanna Blues. , March/April 2006, p. 12. A Girl Thing an all-black suburb of Buffalo, New York, during the 1950s, and featured a Village Voice In 2006, she won a Golden Globe Award, an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild award for her performance in the HBO film Lackawanna Blues. Terminator 2: Judgment Day breakthrough 1986 film, Later, she attended Eastern Michigan University as a dance major; however, she transferred to Indiana University, Bloomington. prime-time drama series. All advice, including picks and predictions, is based on individual commentators opinions and not that of Minute Media or its related brands. Merkerson appeared on the television series of Henry Louis Gates' Finding Your Roots on February 5, 2019 (Season 5, Episode 5), in which he revealed that she was a descendant of Isaac Hawkins and eight others of the 272 enslaved people who were sold in the 1838 Jesuit slave sale by Jesuit priests. People I'm sure it will be emotional, but right now I'm just really happy for having had the opportunity.". [8] She performed in Steven Spielberg's 2012 film Lincoln as Lydia Hamilton Smith, housekeeper to Tommy Lee Jones's character, Congressman Thaddeus Stevens. Jacob's Ladder. Mann Machine "My older brother, Zephry, and I were out driving, and the Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Based on a one-person play by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, the movie was set in A familiar face, an unusual role. And I just remember lying there, looking at my pack of cigarettes on the nightstand and thinking that the great thing about life is that you always have the opportunity to make another choice so I did.". ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Now Merkerson is returning to television to play hospital administrator Sharon Goodwin in the new NBC drama Chicago Med. "Van Buren is a hell of a character. Actor S. Epatha Merkerson and athlete and television personality Michael Strahan are both featured tonight. "It was happening at a time when someone was A native of Michigan, S. Epatha Merkerson earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Wayne State University. In 2015, she joined the cast of NBC medical drama Chicago Med as Sharon Goodwin, Chief of Patient and Medical Services. Merkerson remains a theatrical force on the stage and on the screen and has the distinction of having been nominated for an Image Award in the Outstanding-Lead-Actress-in-a-Drama category for Law & Order (1990) for three consecutive years by the NAACP. Her efforts to deal with the scandal lead to legal threats and oppositions from the hospital board, making the fans worry whether she will get fired from the center. It was to such an extent that the actor who played Mills, Charlie Barnett, felt the same way- and was promptly shocked when he was written out of the show after season 3. In 2005, she won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe This, That and The Other (February Edition) Cinephile card? 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