Tangi Miller

Tangi Miller is an American actress, model, director, and dancer born on February 28, 1970. She is best known for portraying premedical student Elena Tyler on the television drama series Felicity. Throughout her career, Miller has received two NAACP Image Award nominations for her work in television and film.

Miller was born and raised in Miami, Florida, as the eldest of six children. Due to her parents' religious beliefs, she and her siblings were not allowed to watch television growing up. She began acting in high school stage productions, though she did not initially plan to pursue an acting career. Miller earned a degree in marketing from Alabama State University, where she realized her passion for performance after spending her free time acting. She went on to obtain a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California, Irvine, and further studied at the Royal National Theatre in London and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

After early television appearances on the comedy Arli$$ in 1996 and the drama Michael Hayes in 1997, Miller joined the main cast of The WB series Felicity, which ran from 1998 to 2002. Outside of her work on Felicity, Miller performed as a dancer in Ol' Dirty Bastard's 1999 music video for "Got Your Money" and was featured as one of TV Guide's Sexiest Faces.

Her feature and television film credits include starring in the BET movie Playing with Fire opposite Vanessa Estelle Williams, appearing in the independent film The Other Brother (2002), and portraying MC Hammer's wife, Stephanie, in the 2001 VH1 film Too Legit: The MC Hammer Story. Miller played the lead role in Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood, portrayed the daughter of Claudette Wyms on The Shield in 2002, and played Donna in Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion (2006).

Miller's television career includes guest roles on crime dramas such as The District in 2003 and The Division in 2004, as well as a 2005 appearance on the sitcom Half & Half. Following her work on Madea's Family Reunion, Miller shifted her acting focus primarily to independent films, including Hurricane in the Rose Garden, Guardian of Eden, Hollywood Chaos, and Diva Diaries.

For her acting achievements, Miller was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in 2002 for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for Felicity. In 2005, she earned her second NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special for her role in the sci-fi film Phantom Force.

Beginning in the mid-2000s, Miller expanded her career into film production and directing. She produced the Ghanaian film Police Officer 3, Love & Other 4 Letter Words in 2006, and the film After School in 2008. She made her directorial debut in 2017 with Diva Diaries, a project in which she also served as producer and co-star. The film was first shown at the Pan African Film Festival in 2017.