Born and bred in Harlem, Stephanie, the youngest of four, was raised in a family of community activists.
Stephanie experienced her coming of age during the era of the Vietnam War. In America, this prolonged fight to stop communism and the number of black youth drafted, propagated anti-war protests, peace marches, and fueled battles on college campuses for Black Studies and to end the war. This era would also bring about a heroin epidemic that plagued urban communities. Stephanie found her voice in the movement for justice and empowerment: organizing workers, free breakfast programs for children, women’s rights, and the arts.
Stephanie seeks to continue that legacy of humanity and compassion through her work as an artist. In 1984 she co-founded a community based organization, Blackberry Productions Theater Company. The company has developed and produced a repertoire of original works and community forums that give a platform for marginalized voices and pressing issues in the community and celebrate the world of imagination to inspire hope.
Stage, Television and Film
For the past couple of seasons Stephanie has embodied some diverse roles stepping in and out of a range of ages, social economic statuses and plumbing the gamut of emotional depths. In such roles as: Faye in Skeleton Crew at Baltimore Center Stage; Louise in Seven Guitars at Yale Repertory Theater; Mrs. Breedlove in The Bluest Eye at the Guthrie Theater; Katharine in Mothers and Sons at Cincinnati Playhouse and Adelaide and Aunt Glo in Wild With Happy at Baltimore Center Stage.
One of her greatest creative challenges was as author and actor in her one-woman production, The Shaneequa Chronicles: The Making of a Black Woman. Stephanie won an OBIE award, AUDELCO and New Voices Award with Harlem Stage for this coming of age story about an African American woman’s evolution growing up in urban America.
She has appeared on Broadway and in principal roles on the following television shows: Bull, The Last OG, Luke Cage, Blacklist, Blue Bloods, Louie, Broad City, and all the Law and Order shows. She can be seen in the upcoming movies: Submission and OG. Other film credits include principal roles in: The Delivery Man, The Invasion, No Reservations, Finding Forrester and several independent films. (See her complete television and film credits on IMDB.)
| Credit Type | Production | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Actor | The Missing Face | 2000-01 Season |
| Actor | Cool Blues | 2010-11 Season |