LisaGay Hamilton

About LisaGay Hamilton

Who is it?: Actress, Director, Producer
Birth Day: March 25, 1964
Birth Place:  Los Angeles, California, United States
Birth Sign: Aries
Residence: View Park-Windsor Hills, California
Occupation: Actress, director
Years active: 1985–present
Spouse(s): Robin D. G. Kelley (2009 – present)
Website: www.lisagayhamilton.com

LisaGay Hamilton Net Worth

LisaGay Hamilton was born on March 25, 1964 in  Los Angeles, California, United States, is Actress, Director, Producer. Lisa's mother, Tina, is a retired social worker. Her late father, Ira, worked as an engineer and then went into business as a general contractor. A sister, Heidi, is a lawyer. Lisa started acting as a child and played Flip Wilson in a 3rd grade performance. During junior high, she started traveling by train to Manhattan for private acting lessons and acted in summer drama camps. Her principal interest initially was to act in Shakepearean drama. She earned her degree from theatre from New York University and followed it up with a second BFA from Julliard. In 1993, she got her first break at the New York Shakespearean festival playing Isabella opposite Kevin Kline in "Measure for Measure". She was later turned down to play the role of Hester Prynne in a production of "The Scarlet Letter" because of race. Upset, she wrote a letter to 'The Village Voice' to protest legal racism. The play's playwright, Phyllis Nagy, responded with a criticism of her acting, which obviously made things worse. She went on to have a successful career in theater. In 1995-96, her portrayal of a South African singer in Athol Fugard's Valley Song garnered an Obie Award and the Clarence Derwent Award. More recently, Hamilton earned critical acclaim, her second Obie, and a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for her role as Suzanne Alexander in Adrienne Kennedy's, "The Ohio State Murders." Besides appearing in over two dozen films, Hamilton directed the documentary film Beah: A Black Woman Speaks in 2003. This film, about pioneering black actress Beah Richards, dealt with Hamilton seeking out Richards, an African-American actress who had broken ground making inroads for black actresses.
LisaGay Hamilton is a member of Actress

💰LisaGay Hamilton Net worth: $1.3 Million

Some LisaGay Hamilton images

Biography/Timeline

1970

Hamilton fell in love with theater at an early age. During the 1970s, she saw several off-Broadway productions by the Negro Ensemble Company, including A Soldier's Story and The First Breeze of Summer. She enrolled in Carnegie Mellon University to study theater, but after a year was accepted into New York University’s Tisch Drama School. After graduating in 1985, she earned a second BFA from The Juilliard School in 1989.

1995

Early on, Hamilton set her sights on classical theater. In one of her first notable roles, she played opposite Kevin Kline in Measure for Measure in the New York Shakespeare Festival. Her performances in Much Ado About Nothing, Tartuffe, Reckless, Family of Mann, and Two Gentlemen of Verona, earned her a reputation as a serious dramatic actor. In 1995-96, her portrayal of a young, aspiring South African singer in Athol Fugard's Valley Song garnered an Obie Award, the Clarence Derwent Award, the Ovation nomination for best Actress, and a Drama Desk nomination. More recently, Hamilton earned critical acclaim, her second Obie, and a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for her role as Suzanne Alexander in Adrienne Kennedy’s, The Ohio State Murders.

2005

Hamilton won a Peabody Award in 2005 for creating and directing the 2003 documentary film Beah: A Black Woman Speaks. The film tells the story of pioneering black Actress Beah Richards, who had broken ground for African-American actresses. The two women had met on the set of Beloved (1998). Over the next two years, Hamilton made a record of more than 70 hours of their conversations. Hamilton's film explored Richards' political activism as well as her poetry. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the AFI Film Festival. After Richards died in 2000, Hamilton collaborated with Illustrator R. Gregory Christie to turn one of her poems into a children's book. Keep Climbing Girls was published by Simon and Schuster in 2006.

2009

In August 2009, Hamilton married Historian and Writer Robin D. G. Kelley. They reside together in the View Park-Windsor Hills neighborhood in Los Angeles, California.

2010

In the fall of 2010, Hamilton took a faculty position in the School of Theater for the California Institute of the Arts.

2014

Hamilton was born in Los Angeles, California but spent most of her childhood in Stony Brook, New York on Long Island. Her father, Ira Winslow Hamilton, Jr., hailed from Bessemer, Alabama, and her mother, the former Eleanor Albertine "Tina" Blackwell, was from Meridian, Mississippi. Both parents graduated from historically black colleges—Tina attended Talladega while Ira went to Morehouse—and they both became successful professionals. Ira worked for a while as an Engineer and then went into Business as a general contractor. Tina eventually earned a master's degree in social work and worked for the Girl Scouts for many years.

2019

Hamilton appeared in over two dozen films, including The Truth About Charlie and Beloved for Director Jonathan Demme, Clint Eastwood’s True Crime, the independent films; Palookaville, Drunks, Showtime’s A House Divided, and as Ophelia in Director Campbell Scott’s film version of Hamlet. She has worked on several projects with Director Rodrigo García, notably his films Ten Tiny Love Stories, Nine Lives, and Mother and Child. Honeydripper directed by John Sayles and The Soloist, directed by Joe Wright.