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Actor, director, playwright, Regina Taylor from The First Lady
July 15, 2022
Hosted By: G.Keith Alexander
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BIOGRAPHY
THE SUMMER OF ACTRESS PRODUCER AND ACTIVIST REGINA TAYLOR “IS ON FIRE!”
The song “This Girl Is On Fire” aptly describes acclaimed Golden Globe Award and NAACP Image Award winning actress and activist Regina Taylor who is hot this summer with new projects.
Taylor is in pre-production on a film entitled Justified which also stars Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominated actress Aunjanue Ellis, who received critical acclaim playing the Venus sisters mom in King Richard.
Taylor also gives a critically acclaimed portrayal as Marion Shields Robinson, the mother of former First Lady Michelle Obama, on the Showtime series The First Lady. Taylor can also be seen on the CBS series Blue Bloods playing NYPD Captain Terrell.
In addition, Taylor is currently a part of a collective called the African Diasporic Network that will debut Echoes of Us: Now and Always from July 15-17 at the Marines Memorial Theatre in San Francisco, CA.
The narrative is a combination of monologues that tell the versatile stories of African-Americans.
Taylor will be joined by a number of other renowned artists including novelist Pearl Cleage, playwright, screenwriter and associate professor at the Tisch School of the Arts Richard Wesley, actress Anna Maria Horsford and Bay area actor, poet and spoken word artist and rapper Jamey Williams.
Taylor recently wrote a stage play entitled Déjà Vu for New York’s Signature Theatre, where she has been a writer-in-residence since 2013. She also partnered with her alma mater’s Southern Methodist University’s Meadow School of the Arts to create a multi-faceted activist driven mixtape entitled the black album. Her most recent television credits include 2020’s Lovecraft Country
Taylor has a career that spans over 40 years. Born in Dallas, Texas, her mother, Nell Taylor, was a social worker and poet. She and her family later moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma. While there she experienced racial bias while attending a racially integrated school. She went on to study at Southern Methodist University.
It was while she was studying at Southern Methodist where she had her first two acting roles, 1980’s Nurse and the critically acclaimed 1981 TV movie Crisis at Central High, based on the Little Rock Nine. Taylor received praise from critics for her memorable performance as Minniejean Brown, one of the Little Rock Nine students.
Taylor made her feature film debut in 1989’s Lean On Me where she delivered a strong portrayal of a drug addicted mother. She later became well known for her role as Lily Carter in the early 90s TV series I’ll Fly Away which earned her the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, an NAACP Image Award and two Emmy nominations. From there, Taylor received critical success in a number of films including Losing Isaiah (1995), Clockers (1995), Spirit Lost (1996) and The Negotiator (1998). She earned critical praise in her role as Anita Hill in the made-for-TV movie Strange Justice (1999).
As a theater actress, Taylor was the first black woman to play Juliet in Romeo & Juliet on Broadway. Her other Broadway credits include Macbeth and As You Like It. She also appeared in Off Broadway and regional productions and has also written, directed and starred in several plays.
EPISODE DESCRIPTION
Taylor chats about being in pre-production on a film entitled Justified which also stars Academy Award and Golden Globe Award-nominated actress Aunjanue Ellis, who received critical acclaim playing the Venus sister’s mom in King Richard. Regina and G. Keith discuss her critically acclaimed portrayal as Marion Shields Robinson, the mother of former First Lady Michelle Obama, on the Showtime series The First Lady. Taylor can also be seen on the CBS series Blue Bloods playing NYPD Captain Terrell.