How much is Lorraine Toussaint worth?
| Net Worth: | $3 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional actress |
| Date of Birth: | 4 April 1960 |
| Country: | Trinidad and Tobago (American) |
| Height: | 1.75 m |
About Lorraine Toussaint
In the drama film Middle of Nowhere, which was written and directed by Ava DuVernay, Toussaint played a hardworking mother who struggles to support her daughter’s (Emayatzy Corinealdi) decision to put her life on hold in order to support her incarcerated husband played by Omari Hardwick. For this performance, she received critical acclaim and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female.
1978 was the year when Toussaint received his diploma from the Manhattan High School of Performing Arts. After that, she went to the Juilliard School’s drama division as a member of Group 11. In 1982, her classmates included Megan Gallagher, Penny Johnson Jerald, Jack Kenny, and Jack Stehlin. She graduated from the Juilliard School in 1982.
Toussaint received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Juilliard after completing his studies there. She started out as a Shakespearean actress at the beginning of her career before transitioning to screen acting in television and film.
Toussaint made her screen début in 1983. In the television movie A Case of Deadly Force, which was released in 1986 and was based on the novel by Lawrence O’Donnell, she played the role of the widow of a man who was killed by the police in Boston. Later on, she played Vera Williams, a recurring character, in the daytime soap opera One Life to Live, which aired on ABC. She continued to perform on stage while also appearing in guest-starring parts on television series such as 227 and Law & Order. In the 1990s, she also appeared in a number of films that were broadcast on television.
Any Day Now was the first original television drama series produced by Lifetime. Toussaint starred in the series as Rene Jackson, an accomplished African-American lawyer, opposite Annie Potts. This was Toussaint’s most prominent and leading role to date. The series was met with praise from reviewers for the performances of its two leading actresses as well as the writing of the show is script, despite the fact that it was never able to achieve noteworthy numbers.
In the year 2001, Toussaint was a promising candidate for a Primetime Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series; nevertheless, she was not nominated for the award. Because of her performance on the show, she was considered for the NAACP Image Award five times in the category of Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series. After a total of 88 episodes and four seasons, Any Day Now came to an end.
In the 2006 season of the ABC comedy series Ugly Betty, she recurred as the character Amelia “Yoga” Bluman, and in the 2006 season of the NBC drama Friday Night Lights, she played the part of Bird Merriweather (2009–11). In the drama The Soloist, which was released in 2009, Toussaint also had an appearance as the mother of the character played by Jamie Foxx. In the series Grey’s Anatomy (as a doctor) and Scandal (as a widowed and betrayed pastor’s wife), both created by Shonda Rhimes, she appeared as a guest star in the year 2012.
She played the wicked police chief Angela Martin in the third season of Dana Delany’s series Body of Proof, which aired in 2013, and she had a recurring role in that season. Later in 2013, she became a cast member on the ABC Family drama series The Fosters, playing the role of the mother of the character played by Sherri Saum. Since the conclusion of Any Day Now in 2002, this was the first time she has appeared on screen with Annie Potts since that time.
In the 2014 historical drama film Selma directed by Ava DuVernay, Toussaint had a co-starring role as Amelia Boynton Robinson. Robinson was a prominent civil rights activist who played an important part in the efforts that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Robinson was also the first African-American woman in Alabama to run for Congress. Toussaint portrayed Robinson.
During the same year, she was selected to star alongside Ioan Gruffudd and Alana de la Garza in the ABC fantasy-drama series Forever. After only one season, the television show was pulled from the air. On November 25, 2015, the comedy film Xmas, which was written and directed by Jonathan Levine, was released in theaters. Toussaint had a supporting role in the film. She had co-starring roles in the films Runaway Island and Sophie and the Rising Sun, both of which were released in 2015.
On the NBC legal drama Chicago Justice, which aired a backdoor pilot in Chicago P.D., Toussaint was cast in her role as defense attorney Shambala Green in March of 2016. This was a part that she had previously played on Law & Order in the year 1990. On August 14, 2017, it was revealed that Toussaint would be joining the cast of Into the Badlands as a series regular beginning with the third season of the show. During the third season, she played the part of Cressida, who fancies herself a Prophetess.
The Village was an NBC limited drama series that Toussaint starred in throughout the year 2019. After only one season, the show was pulled from the air. Later on, she played the role of Louise “Lou Lou” Baptiste in the horror film Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, which was produced by Guillermo del Toro. Fast Color was a superhero film in which she starred alongside Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was produced by Guillermo del Toro. In the year 2020, Toussaint was chosen to play the role of Viola “Aunt Vi” Lascombe in the CBS revival of The Equalizer, which starred Queen Latifah.
Summing-Up
Ava DuVernay penned the screenplay for the 2012 drama film Middle of Nowhere, and she also served as the film’s director. As a result of Toussaint’s performance in the film, she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. She received critical acclaim and a Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2014 for her performance as Yvonne “Vee” Parker, the main antagonist in the second season of the comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black, which was streamed on Netflix. The series is a hybrid of comedy and drama.
Theatrical work was where Toussaint’s career got its start; later, she appeared in supporting roles in movies like Breaking In (1989), Hudson Hawk (1991), and Dangerous Minds (1993). As a lead actor, she is best recognized for her role as Rene Jackson in the drama series Any Day Now, which aired on Lifetime from 1998 to 2002. She is also well-known for her recurrent role as defense attorney Shambala Green in the NBC courtroom drama Law & Order.
