LisaGay Hamilton facts for kids

Quick facts for kids LisaGay Hamilton
Hamilton with her Peabody Award, 2005
Born	1964 (age 60–61) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Education	Carnegie Mellon University New York University (BFA) Juilliard School (GrDip)
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1985–present
Spouse(s)	Robin D. G. Kelley ​ (m. 2009)​

LisaGay Hamilton is an American actress who has starred in many movies, TV shows, and plays. She was born in 1964. She is best known for her role as Rebecca Washington, a secretary and later a lawyer, in the TV show The Practice (1997–2003).

She also played Melissa Thoreau in the TV series Men of a Certain Age (2009–2011), Celia Jones in House of Cards (2016), and Kayla Price in The First (2018). LisaGay Hamilton has appeared in films like 12 Monkeys (1995), Jackie Brown (1997), and Beloved (1998). She has also performed in many plays, including Measure for Measure and The Piano Lesson. In 2005, she won a special award called a Peabody Award for directing a documentary film.

Early life and education

LisaGay Hamilton was born in Los Angeles, California. She grew up mostly in Stony Brook, New York, on Long Island. Her father, Ira Winslow Hamilton, Jr., was from Bessemer, Alabama. Her mother, Eleanor Albertine "Tina" Blackwell, was from Meridian, Mississippi.

Both of her parents went to colleges that were originally for Black students. Her mother went to Talladega, and her father went to Morehouse. They both became successful in their jobs. Her father worked as an engineer and then became a general contractor. Her mother earned a master's degree and worked for the Girl Scouts for many years.

LisaGay loved theater from a young age. In the 1970s, she watched many plays by the Negro Ensemble Company. She first studied theater at Carnegie Mellon University. After a year, she moved to New York University's Tisch Drama School, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theater in 1985. She then continued her studies at The Juilliard School, earning a master's degree in drama in 1989.

Acting career highlights

Early in her career, LisaGay Hamilton wanted to act in classic plays. One of her first big roles was opposite Kevin Kline in Measure for Measure at the New York Shakespeare Festival. She became known as a serious dramatic actress for her roles in plays like Much Ado About Nothing and Two Gentlemen of Verona.

In 1995–96, she played a young South African singer in Valley Song by Athol Fugard. For this role, she won an Obie Award and the Clarence Derwent Award. More recently, she received another Obie Award for her role in The Ohio State Murders.

Hamilton has appeared in over two dozen films. These include Beloved and The Truth About Charlie, both directed by Jonathan Demme. She also worked with director Clint Eastwood in True Crime. She played Ophelia in Campbell Scott's film version of Hamlet. She has also worked with director Rodrigo García on films like Nine Lives.

In 2005, LisaGay Hamilton won a Peabody Award for creating and directing the documentary film Beah: A Black Woman Speaks (2003). This film tells the story of Beah Richards, a pioneering Black actress who opened doors for African-American actresses. LisaGay met Beah Richards while working on the film Beloved in 1998. Over two years, Hamilton recorded more than 70 hours of their conversations. Her film explored Richards' political work and her poetry. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the AFI Film Festival. After Richards passed away in 2000, Hamilton worked with an illustrator to turn one of Richards' poems into a children's book called Keep Climbing Girls, published in 2006.

From 2009 to 2011, Hamilton played Melissa in Men of a Certain Age, a TV show starring Ray Romano. In 2010, she also started teaching acting at the School of Theater for the California Institute of the Arts.

Filmography

Film roles

Television roles

Stage performances

Awards and nominations

See also

In Spanish: Lisa Gay Hamilton para niños