S. Epatha Merkerson Biography
S. Epatha Merkerson (born Sharon Epatha Merkerson) is an award-winning American actress who is best known for her role as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren on the NBC police procedural drama series Law & Order, which she performed from 1993 until 2010. Since the series premiered in November 2015, she has also played Reba the Mail Lady on Pee-Playhouse wee’s and Sharon Goodwin in the NBC medical drama Chicago Med (and in crossover appearances on Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D.).
S. Epatha Merkerson Career
Merkerson made her television debut on Pee-Playhouse wee’s as Reba the Mail Lady. Merkerson has also been on shows such as The Cosby Show and others. She made her acting debut in the NBC police procedural drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode “Mushrooms” (Season 1: Episode 17) as the bereaved mother of an 11-month-old boy who was inadvertently shot. Merkerson’s performance impressed the producers sufficiently that she was chosen to succeed Dann Florek as detective squad head in the fourth season of the program, making her one of the rare actors to land a recurring position after a single episode. Merkerson’s career took off once she landed the main part in Emerson’s Bar and Grill’s one-woman show Lady Day.
She played Lola Delaney in William Inge’s Come Back, Little Sheba in a Los Angeles theatrical production in 2007. Merkerson received her second Tony nomination for the show, which premiered on Broadway in January 2008. Merkerson announced on April 1, 2010, that he would quit Law & Order at the end of the show’s twentieth season, following 17 seasons. Her exit from Law & Order was also the show’s final episode, which aired on May 24, 2010. Merkerson appeared on the show for 17 seasons in a row, totaling 395 episodes, more than any other actor affiliated with the show. Merkerson joined TV One’s Find Our Missing in 2012, a reality-reenactment series that features missing individuals of color.
She played Lydia Hamilton Smith, the housekeeper to Tommy Lee Jones’s character, Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, in Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film Lincoln. Merkerson starred in the Primary Stages production of Billy Porter’s play While I Yet Live in 2014. In 2015, she was cast as Sharon Goodwin, Chief of Patient and Medical Services, in the NBC medical drama Chicago Med. Law & Order founder Dick Wolf, along with Matt Olmstead, Derek Haas, and Michael Brandt, conceptualized and wrote the series. Merkerson became a spokesman for Merck America’s Diabetes Challenge in 2014, which aimed to raise awareness of Type 2 diabetes among African Americans.
S. Epatha Merkerson Age
How old is she? Merkerson is 69 years old as of 2021. She was born Sharon Epatha Merkerson on November 28, 1952, in Saginaw, Michigan, United States. She celebrates her birthday on the 28th of November every year.
S. Epatha Merkerson Education
Merkerson graduated from Cooley High School in 1970 and went on to Wayne State University to earn her Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre in 1976. In May 2009, Wayne State University awarded her an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, and she earned the same honor from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in 2012, Montclair State University in 2013, and the University of Pittsburgh in 2017.
S. Epatha Merkerson Nationality | Ethnicity
What ethnicity is Epatha? she belongs to a mixed ethnicity/heritage. She was born in Saginaw, Michigan, United States. The famous actress holds American nationality and citizenship by birth.
S. Epatha Merkerson Height
How tall is Epatha? Merkerson stands at an average height of 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m) tall.
S. Epatha Merkerson Family | Parents
Merkerson was born in Saginaw, Michigan but raised in Detroit. She is the last born child of five children raised by their mother Ann who worked for the United States Postal Service.
S. Epatha Merkerson Husband | Married
Merkerson was married to Toussaint L. Jones from 1994 to 2006. The two had dated from 1975, their relationship could not work out and they decided to call it quits. In 2006, Merkerson and her husband divorced thereafter.
S. Epatha Merkerson Net Worth
How much is she worth? Epatha has an estimated net worth of $11 million which she has earned through being a film, stage, and television actress.
S. Epatha Merkerson Law & Order
She is best known for her award-winning portrayal of Lieutenant Anita Van Buren on the NBC police procedural drama series Law & Order, a role she played from 1993 to 2010, appearing in 395 episodes of the series.
S. Epatha Merkerson Movies
- 2016; Year by the Sea
- 2015; The Challenger
- 2013; Tyler Perry Presents Peeples
- 2012; Find Our Missing
- 2012; Lincoln
- 2009; The Six Wives of Henry Lefay
- 2009; Mother and Child
- 2007; Slipstream
- 2006; Black Snake Moan
- 2004; Jersey Girl
- 2003; The Zoboomafoo Movie
- 2003; Radio
- 2001; The Rising Place
- 1999; Random Hearts
- 1991; Terminator 2: Judgment Day
- 1990; Loose Cannons
- 1990; Jacob’s Ladder
- 1990; Navy Seals
- 1986; She’s Gotta Have It
