A life member of The Actors Studio, Odessa Cleveland is best known for her role as Lieutenant Ginger Bayliss, a recurring character on the television series M*A*S*H, on which she appeared for 26 episodes from 1972 to 1975.
In 1974, she portrayed "Jim's" slave wife in the 1974 musical release of Huckleberry Finn.
Cleveland also had a guest role in an episode of the CBS-TV series M*A*S*H spin-off Trapper John, M.D. in 1986. Beginning as a receptionist and Writer at the Watts Writer's Workshop/Theater in Los Angeles, and under the tutelage of Budd Schulberg, Odessa began appearing in such productions as Black Girl in Search of God at Jim Wood's Studio Watts Theater in Los Angeles.
