Regina Taylor

About Regina Taylor

Who is it?: Actress, Writer, Director
Birth Day: August 22, 1960
Birth Place:  Dallas, Texas, United States
Birth Sign: Virgo
Occupation: Playwright, Director, Actress
Years active: 1980–present

Regina Taylor Net Worth

Regina Taylor was born on August 22, 1960 in  Dallas, Texas, United States, is Actress, Writer, Director. While TV audiences best remember Regina Taylor for her empathic portrayal of housekeeper Lilly Harper in the critically lauded series I'll Fly Away (1991), which rewarded her with a Golden Globe for best actress, an NAACP Image Award, and two Emmy nominations, this Dallas-born talent has made even greater strides in recent years as a playwright. Born on August 22, 1960, she was raised in Oklahoma where she became acutely aware of racial bias while attending a newly integrated school in Muskogee. She went on to study at Southern Methodist University and graduated in 1981, subsequently moving to New York. She made her professional acting debut in the CBS made-for-TV movie Crisis at Central High (1981).On Broadway Taylor became the first Black woman to play William Shakespeare's Juliet thanks to the non-traditional casting efforts of Joseph Papp. She also played Cecilia in "As You Like It" and the First Witch in "Macbeth" during the same season. Other on- and off-Broadway work included "Machinal," "A Map of the World," "The Illusion," and "Jar the Floor." On the West Coast, she won an L.A. Dramalogue award for her work in "The Tempest." Making her film debut with Lean on Me (1989), she became known for her quiet intensity and human dignity in both social drama and the more popular action-oriented films such as Losing Isaiah (1995), Clockers (1995), Spirit Lost (1997), and The Negotiator (1998).Taylor furthered her career on TV as well in such series as Law & Order (1990) and earned notice for her portrayal of Anita Hill opposite Delroy Lindo's Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the made-for-TV movie Strange Justice (1999). She was particularly moving in her portrayal of another maid in the superlative period piece Cora Unashamed (2000), co-starring the equally versatile Cherry Jones. After her success in "I'll Fly Away," she moved into other series such as Feds (1997) and The Education of Max Bickford (2001), but these did not fare as well with audiences.As a playwright Taylor has won the American Critics' Association new play award for "Oo-Bla-Dee," which detailed the story of Black female jazz musicians of the 1940s. "Drowning Crow" was an adaption of Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull," which made it to Broadway in 2004. Others works include "A Night in Tunisia," "Escape from Paradise," "Watermelon Rinds," and "Inside the Belly of the Beast." She conceived and appeared in the 2001 one-woman play "Millennium Mambo," which included selections of works from various African American female writers. She is an esteemed member and Artistic Associate of the Goodman Theater, where many of her plays have come to fruition.
Regina Taylor is a member of Actress

💰Regina Taylor Net worth: $400,000

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Biography/Timeline

1963

Taylor's play Magnolia, set during the beginning of desegregation in Atlanta in 1963, premiered at Chicago's Goodman Theatre in March 2009 directed by Anna Shapiro. after receiving a workshop production in July 2008 at the National Playwrights' Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut.

1977

Taylor was born in Dallas, Texas. Her mother, Nell Taylor, is a social worker and poet. At age twelve, she moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma. The family later returned to Dallas, where she graduated from L. G. Pinkston High School in 1977.

1980

Her earliest professional acting roles were two made-for-television films while she was studying at Southern Methodist University: 1980's Nurse and 1981's Crisis at Central High. In the latter movie, she was praised by critic John O'Connor of The New York Times for her portrayal of Minnijean Brown, a member of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who braved violence and armed guards to integrate Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Her first role to gain widespread attention was that of Mrs. Carter, the drug-addicted mother of a promising young female student, in the 1989 film Lean on Me. She became well-known to the television viewing public for her role as Lilly Harper on the early 1990s TV series I'll Fly Away. This role won her a Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Television Drama and also an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series.

1995

She wrote Escape From Paradise, a one-woman show which was produced at the Goodman Theatre Studio, Chicago, in October 1995. Her short plays Watermelon Rinds and Inside the Belly of the Beast were incorporated into a program at the Goodman Theatre Studio in 1994. Her other plays include Mudtracks, Love Poem #97 and Love Poem #98.

1999

Taylor is also an accomplished stage Actress, and was the first black woman to play Juliet in Romeo and Juliet on Broadway. Her other Broadway credits include Macbeth and As You Like It. She appeared in Off-Broadway and regional productions of such plays as Jar the Floor (Off-Broadway, 1999), Machinal (Off-Broadway, 1990), L'Illusion (Off-Broadway, 1988), and A Map of the World (Off-Broadway, Public Theatre). She appeared as "Ariel" in The Tempest at the La Jolla Playhouse, California in 1987, for which she received a Dramalogue Award.

2000

She wrote and appeared in the play Millennium Mambo, a one-woman work, presented at the Goodman Theatre in February 2000. The work also included short pieces by playwrights Adrienne Kennedy, Ntozake Shange, Suzan-Lori Parks and Kia Corthron. She wrote the play A Night in Tunisia, which premiered during the 2000 Alabama Shakespeare Festival. In 2000, Taylor won a best new play award from the American Critics' Association for Oo-Bla-Dee, a play about 1940s female jazz Musicians. The Goodman Theatre produced the play in 1999.

2002

She wrote and directed Crowns, which is a co-production of the McCarter Theatre, where it premiered in October 2002 and the Second Stage Theatre, produced in December 2002. Crowns is described by Playbill as a "play-with-gospel-music", and is based on the book of the same name of photographs by Michael Cunningham and Journalist Craig Marberry.Crowns has been produced in various locations, including the Meroney Theater in Salisbury, North Carolina with The Piedmont Players in May 2009; the Zach Theatre in Austin, Texas in September 2004, the Pasadena Playhouse in co-production with Ebony Repertory Theatre in July 2009; Syracuse Stage in Syracuse, New York; at the Connecticut Repertory Theatre in Storrs, Connecticut in May 2009 and at the Electric City Playhouse in Anderson, SC in May 2011. Crowns was the most performed musical in the country in 2006. It won four Helen Hayes awards (for Washington, D.C. productions), including Taylor’s win for Best Direction as well as Best Regional Musical.

2004

She wrote and directed an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull titled Drowning Crow. Drowning Crow was produced on Broadway in February 2004 by the Manhattan Theatre Club at the Biltmore Theatre, directed by Marion McClinton.

2005

She wrote and directed The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove, a dramatic rendering of the financial gains and emotional losses of African-American businesswoman Madam C.J. Walker, which received its world premiere production in January 2005 at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

2011

Taylor returned to the Goodman Theatre in January and February 2011 for the world premiere of her new play entitled The Trinity River Plays, a co-production with Dallas Theater Center, directed by Ethan McSweeny. The production is a trilogy composed of Jar Fly, Rain, and Ghoststory.

2013

Taylor is currently the writer-in-residence at the Signature Theatre, where her new play stop.reset. premiered at the Off-Broadway Pershing Square Signature Center on September 8, 2013. Taylor also directed the production.

2014

Since then she has had some critical success for various supporting roles in films, such as the Spike Lee film Clockers, Courage Under Fire, A Family Thing, The Negotiator, and for the films Losing Isaiah and Strange Justice — a Showtime original film in which she portrayed Anita Hill — and as the lead in the PBS telefilm Cora Unashamed, based on a Langston Hughes short story. She was a cast member for all four seasons of the CBS drama The Unit as Molly Blane, the tough-minded housewife who holds the women of "the Unit" together when their husbands are on covert assignments.

2016

In 2016, Taylor starred in the original pilot of Time After Time as Vanessa Anders, but was replaced by Nicole Ari Parker before the series aired, containing a new pilot with Parker.