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T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh is a Actor American born on 13 october 1962 at Chicago (USA)

T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh

T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh
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Birth name Crystal Walker
Nationality USA
Birth 13 october 1962 (61 years) at Chicago (USA)

T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh (born Crystal Walker; October 13, 1962 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American performer, writer, director, and producer. In addition to her status as an original cast member of the Fox sketch comedy series In Living Color (1990–94), she is perhaps best known for her roles as Erica Lucas on the CBS sitcom Cosby, and as Tanya Baxter on the Disney Channel sitcom That's So Raven from 2003 to 2005.

Biography

Early life
Born in Chicago, from the age of three, Keymáh enjoyed entertaining her family – singing, dancing, and reciting original poems and stories. She wrote her first play and her first song in elementary school. A National Merit Scholar, she performed with Ali LeRoi and Lance Crouther in the Mary Wong Comedy Group in high school before Florida A&M University's School of Business and Industry recruited her. During and after college, Keymáh taught theater, dance, and pantomime. She has also done many theater performances and produced and directed films. She was Miss Black America from Illinois and was 1st runner-up in the national Miss Black America contest. She is a graduate of Florida A & M University.


Career
One of the original cast members of Fox Television's Emmy winning variety show, In Living Color, where for five seasons she played a number of characters, including Cryssy, the central character of her self written signature piece, "In Black World". She also sang and danced on the show. Keymáh starred for three seasons on the Disney series That's So Raven as Raven's mom, Tanya Baxter. In the fourth season of the show her character was written out by saying she went to England, to continue pursuing her career in law school. Keymáh was also a series regular for all four seasons on Cosby, where she played flight attendant turned lawyer turned pastry chef turned wife and teacher Erica Lucas Hall, TV daughter of Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashād. She also starred on The Show, where she played writer Denise Everett, on On Our Own, where she played contractor Scotti Decker, and on Waynehead, where she provided the voices for Roz, Shavonne, Aki, Mrs. LaSalle, and many others. Keymáh is currently working on a new two person stage show with music called Sellout!?! with fellow Florida A & M University (FAMU) alum Bryan C. Jones, who was also one of the many guests to appear in her hit variety show T'Keyah Live! They did the first workshop presentation of Sellout!?! at FAMU this spring.


In Living Color characters

LaShawn
Shawanda Harvey, host of Go on Girl
Mrs. Buttman (The Buttmans)
Hilda Hedley (Hey Mon)
Leslie Livingston (Homey the Clown)
Cryssy (Black World)

In Living Color impressions

Diana Ross
La Toya Jackson
Jackée Harry
Janet Jackson
Pam Grier
Barbra Streisand
Jean Stapleton (as Edith Bunker on All in the Family)
Whoopi Goldberg
Eartha Kitt
Anita Baker
Joi Lee
Shahrazad Ali

Other impressions

Sidney Poitier
Katharine Hepburn
Macy Gray
Ruby Dee
Nancy Wilson
Billie Holiday
Nell Carter
Johnny Mathis
Harry Lennix

Don't Get Me Started!
In Don't Get Me Started!, the performer / activist whose work has been called "Comedy with a Conscience," takes her social-political views to the stage in a solo show with music. Through new characters and some burrowed from her shows Some of My Best Friends and T'Keyah Live!, Keymáh expounds on everything from the prison industrial complex to governmental conspiracy theories and includes music parodies like her spin on Nina Simone's "Mississippi God------" called "Land of Lincoln Doggone" about the death rate of young people in her hometown of Chicago, and her take on Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby" called "Obama Baby" about the healthcare plan she'd like to see. Keymáh debuted the show in 2011 at The Black Academy of Art & Letters (TBAAL) in Dallas, Texas. After a conversation with TBAAL Founder Curtis King Keymáh is developing another version of the show that will be "a solo show ... with lots of other people."


T'Keyah Live!
T'Keyah Live! is a variety show and is Keymáh's third self-produced theatrical show. The show includes witty repartee, musical numbers, endearing characters, audience participation, impressions, video presentations, jokes and guests. She has performed the show across the country since 1999 with a number of different guest performers including Todd Bridges, T. C. Carson, Ralph Harris, Dawnn Lewis and Karen Malina White.


Some of My Best Friends
Some of My Best Friends is a series of monologues in verse and prose embodied by a dozen diverse but somehow connected characters. In this humorous, tear jerking, thought-provoking theatrical production, Keymáh champions societal issues that are as relevant today as they were when the show debuted to sold out crowds at Chicago's South Shore Cultural Center in 1991. Overcoming obstacles, the devastation of AIDS, the search for love, race relations, and teen promiscuity are just some of the topics explored. The show was chiefly penned by Keymáh but includes pieces written by or in collaboration with Ali LeRoi, Harry Lennix, and poet Angela Jackson (And All These Roads Be Luminous: Poems Selected and New); and includes a dance choreographed by Maurice Hines. About her work in this show critics have said: "Keymáh is a Charismatic Actress... Chameleonic and Effervescent" – Los Angeles Times;"...Beyond Superlatives; She's Phenomenal!" – Earl Calloway, Chicago Defender; "Much More Than Comedy"- Lisa M. Pancia, New York Vignette; "...a Delightful, Multitalented Performer whose ability to create believable characters on stage is a Wonder to Behold"- Nat Colley, Los Angeles Reader; “Keymáh is Magnificent” – Linda Armstrong, Amsterdam News;"...Keymáh’s Poignant, Detailed Portrayals are Never Less Than Magnificent"- Randy Trabitz, Los Angeles Weekly. The show garnered an AUDELCO Award nomination for Best Solo Performer, an NAACP Theatre Award nomination for Best Writing, and NAACP Theatre Awards for Best Performance and Best Play.


Personal life
Keymáh is an avid gardener and a vegetarian, as well as an active, life member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She is also a professional poet, singer and dancer, and an amateur visual artist.


Named for Keymah
There is a theater scholarship named for Keymáh at her alma mater, Florida A&M University and a medical scholarship named for her at Meharry Medical College. Associated Black Charities operates the donor advised Keymah Cultural Fund. The Keymah Cultural Fund provides tickets to youth groups for theatrical performances and funds artistic groups that serve or are composed of teens and children.


Books published
Keymah is the author of Some of My Best Friends: A Collection of Characters, the book version of the stage show she performed for ten years, and Natural Woman / Natural Hair: A Hair Journey – Hairstyles and Hairstories from the Front with Simple, Step-by-Step Instructions on Taking Care of your Natural Hair, an instructional hair care manual with anecdotes on her experiences as one of the first Black actresses to wear her hair naturally on primetime television.

Usually with

Source : Wikidata

Filmography of T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh (6 films)

Display filmography as list

Actress

Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens, 1h25
Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Disaster, Comedy, Action, Adventure, Horror
Themes Films about animals, Seafaring films, Transport films, Films about sharks, Natural horror films, Mise en scène d'un poisson, Disaster films
Actors Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, Gary Busey, Cody Linley, Ryan Newman, David Hasselhoff
Roles Tech Terry
Rating39% 1.964231.964231.964231.964231.96423
L'histoire se déroule cinq ans après les événements de Sharknado 3. La tempête porteuse de requins tueurs est de retour et la cible des squales est à présent Las Vegas. Après avoir ravagé la ville, le Sharknado se déplace et frappe plusieurs états du centre des États-Unis, sans façade maritime, qui n'ont pas l'habitude des cyclones se formant au-dessus de la mer, mais plutôt des tornades continentales. En se déplaçant et frappant diverses installations (barrage Hoover, champ de pétrole, transformateur électrique, centrale nucléaire), la tornade change de nature en se chargeant de matières de plus en plus dangereuses : poussières, pierres, pétrole, feu, électricité à haute tension, et même radioactivité. Toute la famille Shepard, enfin réunie, va devoir unir ses forces pour en venir à bout.
Chi-Raq
Chi-Raq (2015)
, 1h58
Directed by Spike Lee
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Musical theatre, Musical, Crime
Themes Théâtre, Musical films, Films based on plays
Actors John Cusack, Nicholas Cannon, Jennifer Hudson, Jeremy Piven, Samuel L. Jackson, Common
Roles Lorde
Rating58% 2.949492.949492.949492.949492.94949
Après la mort d'un enfant tuée par une « balle perdue », un groupe de femmes mené par Lysistrata s'organise contre la violence dans les quartiers de South Side à Chicago.
Tweety's High Flying Adventure, 1h10
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Fantasy, Animation
Themes Films about animals, Transport films, Aviation films, Films about birds, Children's films
Actors Joe Alaskey, Jeff Bennett, Rob Paulsen, Jim Cummings, Stan Freberg, Tress MacNeille
Roles Aoogah (voice)
Rating59% 2.977322.977322.977322.977322.97732
When Colonel Rimfire announces at the Looney Club about his beliefs that cats are the most intelligent animals (after his many plans were foiled by Cool Cat), Granny, hoping to raise enough money to save a nearby children's park, makes a wager that her Tweety can fly around the world in 80 days, collecting the pawprints of 80 cats in the process. Sylvester, still hoping to make Tweety his personal snack, is incensed at the thought of some other cat getting the little bird first and vows to follow Tweety around the world and catch the canary himself; unbeknownst to either one, a thief is also present. Tweety continues his adventure while meeting some of his friends along the way and making a new one known as Aoogah (the name coming from her ability to imitate a horn). When their adventure is almost completed, Sylvester has a chance to frame Tweety by passing his license to fly for a stolen passport. He almost succeeds, but the real passport is in his hand, thus getting himself arrested. With his helping hand, Tweety and Aoogah are able to complete their mission and save the park, whilst Sylvester heads off for prison.
Jackie Brown, 2h34
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Comedy, Mob film, Action, Crime, Romance
Themes Medical-themed films, Films about drugs, Heist films, Gangster films, Escroquerie
Actors Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, Robert De Niro
Roles Raynelle – Ordell's Junkie Friend
Rating74% 3.7488253.7488253.7488253.7488253.748825
Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) is a flight attendant for a small Mexican airline, the latest step down for her career, since she used to work for larger airlines. To make ends meet, she smuggles money from Mexico into the United States for Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson), a black-market gun runner living in the Los Angeles area under the ATF's close watch, forcing him to use couriers.
Big Shots
Big Shots (1987)
, 1h34
Directed by Robert Mandel
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Action, Adventure, Crime
Actors Darius McCrary, Robert Joy, Robert Prosky, Paul Winfield, Jerzy Skolimowski, Brynn Thayer
Rating57% 2.8559152.8559152.8559152.8559152.855915
An 11-year-old boy from Hinsdale, Illinois named Obie Dawkins (Ricky Busker) is out fishing with his father, who tells him about the birds and the bees. All the while Obie shows interest in his dad's watch, who eventually gives it to him. Later that morning Obie is in school when his mom arrives to tell him that his dad is in the hospital. The family learns that he suffered a massive heart attack, which he dies from days later. After the funeral, Obie lingers to the memory of him and his father, the day his dad gave him his watch, as he and his family tries to move forward.