LaTanya Richardson Jackson

LaTanya Richardson Jackson is an American actress with a career in stage, film, and television. A native of Atlanta, GA, she graduated from Spelman College with a B.A. in Theatre. In 2012, Spelman awarded her an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts. Her professional theatre credits include many years at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre where she appeared in the critically acclaimed For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. In 2009, she starred on Broadway in the Tony Award winning revival of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone directed by Bartlett Sher. Additionally, she has performed for Douglas Turner Ward at The Negro Ensemble Company, Mike Nichols at Second Stage Theatre Company, Neema Barnett at Manhattan Theatre Club, Joanna Woodward at the Westport Country Playhouse, and Kenny Leon at the Kennedy Center among others. Most recently, she was in Love Loss and What I Wore at New York’s Westside Theatre, and directed the True Color Theatre Company’s production of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running. Her film credits include “Mother and Child,” “Bolden,” “The Fighting Temptations,” “U.S. Marshalls,” and “Losing Isaiah.” Television credits include “Harry’s Law,” HBO’s “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge,” “Boston Public,” and the critically acclaimed “100 Center Street.” Her civic activities include: Past trustee of Spelman College; board member at Ebony Repertory Theater, The Urban World Film Festival, and Artists for a New South Africa; advisory board member of The Women’s Center; advisory committee member of Atlanta’s True Colors Theatre Company. She has received numerous awards for her civic activity from the Atlanta Urban League Guild, the United Negro College Fund, the Broward County Public Library, the National Kidney Foundation, and the Catalog for Giving. Most recently, she and her husband were among the recipients of the National Action Network’s Keeper of the Dream Award, and were honored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is married to actor Samuel L. Jackson and they have one daughter, Zoe Dove, who is an associate producer for Maggie Vision at ESPN.