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L. Scott Caldwell | |
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 Caldwell in 2007 | |
| Born | Laverne Scott 1950 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Other names | Scotty Caldwell |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1974–present |
| Spouse(s) | John Caldwell (divorced)Dasal Banks (m. 2004;died 2005) |
| Children | 1 |
L. Scott Caldwell (born Laverne Scott, born 1950) [1] is an American actress perhaps best known for her roles as Deputy U.S. Marshall Erin Poole in The Fugitive (1993) and Rose on the television series Lost .
Born the middle child[ citation needed ] in Chicago, Illinois, [1] to working-class parents, Laverne Scott grew up in the Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side. At a high enrollment elementary school, she attended the morning session, and her older siblings went to school in the afternoon. When the school released her at noon she was escorted to a neighborhood theater where she was minded by a friend of her mother. While attending Hyde Park High School, she joined the drama club.[ citation needed ]
Her class went to see a performance of A Day of Absence, featuring Douglas Turner Ward, a co-founder of The Negro Ensemble Company. It was the first time she saw professional black actors on stage. After graduating high school in 1967,[ citation needed ] she attended Northwestern University. She left after one year [1] and went to work full-time as an operator at Illinois Bell.[ citation needed ] She got married and had a son. She transferred her credits to Loyola University-Chicago and earned a bachelor's degree in Theater Arts and Communications. [1]
Caldwell planned on a teaching career and taught at Chicago High School of the Performing Arts. She also worked a year for the Chicago Council on Fine Arts as an artist-in-residence. While in Chicago Caldwell performed in local theatrical productions at the Body Politic, Court Theater, and Eleventh Street Theater. She went to New York in 1978 to audition for Uta Hagen's school HB Studio. While waiting to audition she saw an ad for The Negro Ensemble Company. After her audition at Hagen's school, she took the subway to the NEC.
Caldwell was initially rebuffed by the person who interviewed her but she insisted on meeting with Ward. She used the three pieces she performed at her audition for Hagen. She was accepted by both Hagen and Ward. During her first season at NEC Caldwell performed in several plays. One of those plays, Home , by Samm Art Williams, took her to Broadway's Cort Theatre in 1980. The play was critically acclaimed and earned a Tony Award nomination for Charles Brown. After Home closed Caldwell worked in several regional theater productions including Boesman and Lena at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre and A Raisin in the Sun at Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo, New York.
In December 1984, while working in A Play of Giants, Caldwell was struck by a car while hailing a cab on Columbus Avenue in New York. She suffered a severe back injury and was unable to work for nearly two years. Her first audition after her recovery was for August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone . Her performance as Bertha Holly earned her a 1988 Tony Award. Soon after winning the Tony, she moved to southern California to work in television and film. She has been extremely busy, working in several cities in the U.S., Canada, and South Africa, and continues to work in theater. She returned to Broadway in 1997 as the lead in Neil Simon's short-lived Proposals . After Proposals closed Caldwell performed the role of Leah, Little Augie's sister, in New York City Center's "Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert" production of St. Louis Woman.
In 2006, she made her Goodman Theatre debut in Regina Taylor's The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove. In 2011, she took on the role of Lena Younger in the Ebony Repertory Theatre production of the Lorraine Hansberry classic A Raisin in the Sun . The play was directed by Phylicia Rashad. Caldwell, along with the entire cast, was nominated for the LA Stage Alliance 2011 Ovation Award for her work as Lena, for which she won the 2011 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award.
Caldwell is an active member of Unite For Strength, the Screen Actors Guild coalition in favor of joining with AFTRA. On September 19, 2008, she won a seat as an alternate on the national board of directors and the Hollywood division board of directors. Caldwell was elected to a second one-year term on September 24, 2009. She served on the Seniors, Legislative, Women, Holiday Host, Honors and Tributes, and EEOC committees. In September 2010, she was elected to a one-year term on the national board of directors. She served as the national chair of the Women's committee. In 2011, Caldwell was on the SAG national board of directors ballot for a fourth consecutive year. She won a three-year term on the national and Hollywood boards. She would serve as national chair of Women, and Healthcare Safetynet committees.
In 2016, she was part of the PBS Civil War drama series Mercy Street . [2]
In her early twenties, Scott married John Caldwell and had a son, Ominara. She was divorced in the early 1980s and was married again (on her birthday) in 2004 to artist/photographer/director Dasal Banks. Banks suffered from cancer and died in May 2005. Caldwell completed her husband's final film, My Brothers and Me, a documentary created to raise awareness about prostate cancer among black men.
Caldwell gives lectures and appears on panels concerning African American actors. In 2007, she participated in tributes to August Wilson at Goodman Theatre in conjunction with Congo Square Theatre Company in Chicago, and at St. Louis Black Repertory Company. In June 2008, she participated in the NAACP Theatre Awards Festival Actors on Acting panel. In June 2009, Caldwell moderated a panel of actors, directors, and casting directors discussing African American Images in Hollywood. In February 2010, she directed a staged reading of Standing On My Sisters' Shoulders for the Los Angeles chapter of Actors Equity Association.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Without a Trace | Janet Smith | |
| 1984 | Exterminator 2 | Patron | |
| 1991 | Us Against the Wall | Sandy Wilkes | |
| Dutch | Homeless Woman | ||
| 1993 | The Fugitive | Deputy US Marshal Erin Poole | |
| Extreme Justice | Devlin | ||
| 1995 | Soweto Green | Cora Tshabalala | |
| Waiting to Exhale | Bernadine's Divorce Attorney | ||
| The Net | Court Appointed Attorney | ||
| Devil in a Blue Dress | Hattie Mae Parsons | ||
| 1999 | Mystery, Alaska | Judge McGibbons | |
| 2002 | Dragonfly | Nurse | |
| 2006 | Gridiron Gang | Bobbi Porter | |
| 2009 | Powder Blue | Nurse Gomez | |
| 2010 | Like Dandelion Dust | Allyson Bower | |
| Lisa Trotter | Lisa Trotter | ||
| 2011 | The Lamp | Miss Esther | |
| 2015 | Division 19 | Michelle Jacobs | |
| That Gal...Who Was In That Thing: That Guy 2 | Herself | Documentary | |
| The Perfect Guy | Evelyn | ||
| Concussion | Mrs. Waters | ||
| 2017 | The Case for Christ | Alfie Davis | |
| 2021 | Bingo Hell | Dolores |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | All My Children | Nurse | 1 episode |
| 1983 | American Playhouse | Edith | Episode: "The Files on Jill Hatch: Part II" |
| 1988 | The Cosby Show | Elizabeth | Episode: "Out of Brooklyn" |
| God Bless the Child | Althea Watkins | TV movie | |
| TV 101 | Mrs. Hines | Episode: "Home" | |
| 1989 | Alien Nation | Lyddie Tuggles | TV movie |
| L.A. Law | Wanda Havens | Episode: "Leave it to Geezer" | |
| Tour of Duty | Selma Binion | Episode: "Promised Land" | |
| Hunter | Gloria Tessel | Episode: "Last Run" | |
| 1990 | Dangerous Passion | Ruby | TV movie |
| Doogie Howser, M.D. | Mrs. Alexander | Episode: "Use a Slurpy, Go to Jail" | |
| The Outsiders | Barbra Richards | Episode: "Pilot" | |
| 1991 | Love, Lies and Murder | Judge Starkey | Episodes: 1.1 & 1.2 |
| Equal Justice | Mrs. Ida Bolton | Episode: "The Big Game and Other Crimes" | |
| Thirtysomething | Alice | Episode: "Hopeless" | |
| Baby of the Bride | Unknown | TV movie | |
| 1992 | The Heights | Joanne | Episode: "No Place Like Home" |
| 1993 | The Switch | Mrs. Linson | TV movie |
| Darkness Before Dawn | Unknown | TV movie | |
| Reasonable Doubts | Eleanor Gilbert | Episode: "Sister, Can You Spare a Dime?" | |
| For the Love of My Child: The Anissa Ayala Story | Rita | TV movie | |
| Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman | Carol Sherman | Episode: "The Green, Green Glow of Home" | |
| 1994 | Melrose Place | Judge Maxine Marco | Episode: "With This Ball and Chain" |
| 1995 | Grace Under Fire | Carol Briscoe | Episode: "Sticks and Stones" |
| Down Came a Blackbird | Cerises | TV movie | |
| 1996 | Twilight Man | Detective Lou Shannon | TV movie |
| The Pretender | Gwen Porter | Episode: "Pilot" | |
| Dying to Be Perfect: The Ellen Hart Pena Story | Dr. Wallace | TV movie | |
| 1997 | Murder One | Anna Mae Brown | Episode: "Chapter Eleven, Year Two" |
| 1997 | Weapons of Mass Distraction | Senator Condon | TV movie |
| 1998 | Any Day Now | Mrs. Opal Lee | Episode: "Making Music with the Wrong Man" |
| Promised Land | Jury Forewoman | Episode: "Jury Duty" | |
| 1999 | The Last Man on Planet Earth | Ester | TV movie |
| JAG | Mrs. Flora Springs | Episode: "Nobody's Child" | |
| Chicago Hope | Bonnie Medina | Episode: "A Goy and His Dog" | |
| Intimate Betrayal | Detective Sheila Monroe | TV movie | |
| 1999–2000 | Judging Amy | Tanya Miller | 7 episodes |
| 2000 | City of Angels | Angela Patterson | Episodes: "Deliver the Male", "Assume the Position", "The Prince and the Porker" |
| 2001 | The Division | Detective Reese | Episode: "The Fear Factor" |
| Kate Brasher | Mrs. Rumel | Episode: "Simon" | |
| The Practice | Parole Board Chairwoman Susan Moton | Episode: "Killing Time" | |
| Passions | Clinic Counselor | Episode: #1.630 | |
| 2002 | The Court | Anne Marie | Episode: "Due Process" |
| 2003 | Queens Supreme | Judge Rose Barnea | 13 episodes |
| Nip/Tuck | Dr. Reed | Episode: "Montana/Sassy/Justicce" | |
| 2004–2006 | ER | Dr. Rabb | Episodes: "NICU", "Graduation Day" |
| 2004–2010 | Lost | Rose Nadler | 23 episodes |
| 2006 | Cold Case | Alice Stallworth | Episode: "Sandhogs" |
| Ghost Whisperer | Liz Nelson | Episode: "The Ghost Within" | |
| 2007 | Jozi-H | Dr. Laura Shields | Episode: "Love in the Time of Aids" |
| State of Mind | Mrs. Williams | Episode: "Lost & Found" | |
| Saving Grace | Dee Reynolds | Episode: "Everything's Got a Shelf Life" | |
| Without a Trace | Reverend Anna Washington | Episode: "Baggage" | |
| 2008–2013 | The Secret Life of the American Teenager | Margaret Shakur | 32 episodes |
| 2009–2013 | Southland | Enid Adams | 7 episodes |
| 2011 | Grey's Anatomy | Allison Cobb | Episode: "Don't Deceive Me (Please Don't Go)" |
| CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Nora Parkes | Episode: "In a Dark, Dark House" | |
| 2012 | My America | Narrator | Episode: "Bellagio" |
| Private Practice | Jillian McCray | Episode: "The Next Episode" | |
| 2013 | Low Winter Sun | Violet Geddes | 5 episodes |
| Criminal Minds | Tina Johnson | Episode: "Strange Fruit" | |
| 2015 | Madam Secretary | Afeni Rahim | Episode: "You Say You Want a Revolution" |
| 2016–2017 | Mercy Street | Belinda | 11 episodes |
| 2017 | Brooklyn Nine-Nine | Judge Laverne Holt | Episode: "Your Honor" |
| How to Get Away with Murder | Jasmine Bromelle | 5 episodes | |
| The Last Tycoon | Lucille | Episodes: "More Stars Than There Are in Heaven", "Eine Kleine Reichmusik" | |
| The Trustee | Odelle Jones | TV movie | |
| 2017–2021 | Insecure | Carol Carter | 8 episodes |
| 2018 | Dynasty | Granny | Episode: "Trashy Little Tramp" |
| 2018–2020 | Chilling Adventures of Sabrina | Nana Ruth | Episodes: "Chapter Seven", "Chapter Ten", "Chapter Twenty-One", "Chapter Thirty-One" |
| 2018–2019 | A Million Little Things | Renee Howard | Episodes: "Goodnight", "Austin", "The Game of Your Life" |
| 2018–2021 | Queen Sugar | Willa Mae Desonier | Episodes: "Late-April 2020", "Study War No More" |
| 2019 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Jo Anderson | Episode: "Diss" |
| 2019–2021 | All Rise | Roxy Robinson | 7 episodes |
| 2020 | Sacred Lies | Dalia | Episodes: "Chapter Ten: With the Dancing Lions", "Chapter Nine: Bloodline" |
| Lucifer | Lily Rose | Episode: "It Never Ends Well for the Chicken" | |
| Love in the Time of Corona | Nanda | Episodes: "Love and Protest", "Seriously Now", "#RelationshipGoals", "The Course of Love" | |
| 2021 | One of Us Is Lying | Nonny | Episode: "Pilot" |
| 2021–2022 | Our Kind of People | Olivia Sturgess Dupont | 8 episodes |
| 2023 | The Good Doctor | Evelyn Allen | Episode: "Hard Heart" |
| 2024 | Bad Monkey | YaYa | Upcoming series |
Laura Elizabeth Metcalf is an American actress and comedian. Known for her complex and versatile roles across the stage and screen, she has received various accolades throughout her career spanning more than four decades, including four Primetime Emmy Awards and two Tony Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and three Golden Globe Awards.
The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical is an honor presented at the Tony Awards, a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, to actresses for quality leading roles in a musical play, whether a new production or a revival. The awards are named after Antoinette Perry, an American actress who died in 1946.
Phylicia Rashad is an American actress. She was most recently dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University before her three-year contract ended in May 2024. She is best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the sitcom The Cosby Show (1984–1992) which earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations in 1985 and 1986. She also played Ruth Lucas on Cosby (1996–2000).
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Robert Hooks is an American actor, producer, and activist. Along with Douglas Turner Ward and Gerald S. Krone, he founded The Negro Ensemble Company. The Negro Ensemble Company is credited with the launch of the careers of many major black artists of all disciplines, while creating a body of performance literature over the last thirty years, providing the backbone of African-American theatrical classics. Additionally, Hooks is the sole founder of two significant black theatre companies: the D.C. Black Repertory Company, and New York's Group Theatre Workshop.
Raisin is a musical with music by Judd Woldin, lyrics by Robert Brittan, and a book by Robert Nemiroff and Charlotte Zaltzberg. It is an adaptation of the Lorraine Hansberry play A Raisin in the Sun; the musical's book was co-written by Hansberry's husband, Robert Nemiroff.
Tonya Pinkins is an American actress and filmmaker. Her award-winning debut feature film Red Pill was an official selection at the 2021 Pan African Film Festival, won the Best Black Lives Matter Feature and Best First Feature at The Mykonos International Film Festival, Best First Feature at the Luléa Film Festival, and is nominated for awards in numerous festivals around the globe. Her web-series The Red Pilling of America can be heard on her podcast "You Can't Say That!" at BPN.fm/ycst
The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play is an honor presented at the Tony Awards, a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, to actresses for quality leading roles in a Broadway play. The awards are named after Antoinette Perry, an American actress who died in 1946.
The Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play is an honor presented at the Tony Awards, a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, to actresses for quality supporting roles in a Broadway play. The awards are named after Antoinette Perry, an American actress who died in 1946. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, to "honor the best performances and stage productions of the previous year."
Hope Clarke is an American actress, dancer, vocalist, choreographer, and director. Clarke, a Tony Award nominee, made history in 1995 when she became the first African-American, as well as the first African-American woman, to direct and choreograph a major staging of the classic opera, Porgy and Bess. Clarke began her career as a principal dancer with the Katherine Dunham Company and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and as an actress appeared in many stage, film, and television productions. As a choreographer, Clarke is credited with staging and movement for more than 30 shows on and off Broadway.
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Beth Fowler is an American actress and singer, best known for her performances on Broadway and for her role as Sister Ingalls, on Orange Is the New Black. She is a two-time Tony Award nominee.
Eliza "Virginia" Capers was an American actress. She won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical in 1974 for her performance as Lena Younger in Raisin, a musical version of Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun.
Noma Dumezweni is a South African-British actress. In 2006, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role for her performance as Ruth Younger in A Raisin in the Sun at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. In 2017, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance as Hermione Granger in the original West End run of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; she reprised the role for the show's original Broadway run and, in 2018, was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.
Claudia Mae McNeil was an American actress known for premiering the role of matriarch Lena Younger in both the stage and screen productions of A Raisin in the Sun.
Clybourne Park is a 2010 play by Bruce Norris inspired by Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun (1959). It portrays fictional events set during and after the Hansberry play, and is loosely based on historical events that took place in the city of Chicago. It premiered in February 2010 at Playwrights Horizons in New York. The play received its UK premiere at the Royal Court Theatre in London in a production directed by Dominic Cooke. The play received its Chicago premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in a production directed by Steppenwolf ensemble member Amy Morton. As described by The Washington Post, the play "applies a modern twist to the issues of race and housing and aspirations for a better life." Clybourne Park was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2012 Tony Award for Best Play.
A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes. The story tells of a black family's experiences in south Chicago, as they attempt to improve their financial circumstances with an insurance payout following the death of the father, and deals with matters of housing discrimination, racism, and assimilation. The New York Drama Critics' Circle named it the best play of 1959, and in recent years publications such as The Independent and Time Out have listed it among the best plays ever written.
Starletta DuPois is an American actress. She appeared in a more than 90 movies and television show during her career. She received Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in The Mighty Gents (1978).
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