LisaGay Hamilton

LisaGay Hamilton is an American performer who works across screen and stage. She achieved widespread recognition for portraying secretary and lawyer Rebecca Washington in the legal television series The Practice from 1997 through 2003. Alongside her extensive theatrical performances, she has featured prominently in numerous feature films, television projects, and independent cinematic productions throughout her career.

Born in Los Angeles, California, on March 25, 1964, Hamilton spent most of her upbringing in Stony Brook, New York. Her father was an engineer and general contractor, while her mother earned a master's degree in social work and worked for the Girl Scouts. Her early passion for performing was sparked by attending off-Broadway productions presented by the Negro Ensemble Company during the 1970s. She began her higher education in theater at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1985. She completed her training at The Juilliard School, graduating with a Master of Arts in drama in 1989.

Hamilton built her early career around classical theater. She appeared opposite Kevin Kline in Measure for Measure for the New York Shakespeare Festival, followed by performances in Henry IV, Tartuffe, Much Ado About Nothing, and Two Gentlemen of Verona. Her role in Athol Fugard's Valley Song earned her a Clarence Derwent Award and an Obie Award. She was an original cast member in the Broadway debuts of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson and Gem of the Ocean, and she later received a second Obie Award for her performance in The Ohio State Murders.

In television, Hamilton co-starred as Melissa Thoreau on the comedy-drama Men of a Certain Age between 2009 and 2011, and secured roles in series such as House of Cards, Chance, and The First. She has also performed in over twenty-four films, including 12 Monkeys, Jackie Brown, Beloved, True Crime, The Sum of All Fears, The Soloist, Beastly, Beautiful Boy, and Vice. Additionally, she collaborated with director Rodrigo García on several feature films, including Ten Tiny Love Stories, Nine Lives, and Mother and Child.

In addition to acting, Hamilton created and directed the 2003 documentary film Beah: A Black Woman Speaks, which chronicled the life, poetry, and political engagement of actress Beah Richards. The documentary won the Grand Jury Prize at the AFI Film Festival and earned Hamilton a Peabody Award in 2005. She later adapted one of Richards' poems into a 2006 children's book titled Keep Climbing Girls. In late 2010, Hamilton joined the faculty at the California Institute of the Arts School of Theater, where she teaches acting.