S. Epatha Merkerson Biography
S. Epatha Merkerson is an actor who has appeared in films, plays, and on television. She is best known for her role as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren on the NBC police procedural drama Law & Order: SVU. She received the Cancer Care organization’s Regulus Award in 2002 for her dedication to lung cancer awareness and education. Jesse L. Martin, her Law & Order (1990) co-star, presented her with the award.
S. Epatha Merkerson Age
Epatha was born on November 28, 1952, in Saginaw, Michigan, United States of America. She is 70 years old as of November 2022.
S. Epatha Merkerson Education
Merkerson graduated from Cooley High School in 1970 and attended Wayne State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre in 1976. Wayne State University awarded her an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in May 2009[6], and she received 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 Height
She stands at a height of 5′ 5″ (1.65 m) tall.
S. Epatha Merkerson Family
She is the youngest of five children raised by their mother, Ann, who worked for the post office (Linda Merkerson, Debbie Merkerson-Gooch, Barrie Merkerson, and Zephry Merkerson).
S. Epatha Merkerson Married- Husband
Epatha was married to Toussaint Louverture Jones Jr. from 20 March 1994 – 14 February 2006.
S. Epatha Merkerson Career
Merkerson made her television debut on Pee-Playhouse wee’s as Reba the Mail Lady. Merkerson has also appeared on The Cosby Show and other television shows. She made her first appearance in the NBC police procedural drama Law & Order as the bereaved mother of an 11-month-old boy who is accidentally shot. Merkerson’s performance impressed the producers enough that she was chosen to replace Dann Florek as detective squad chief in the fourth season of the show, making her one of the few actors to secure a recurring role after making only one appearance on the show. Merkerson’s career took off after she landed the lead role in Emerson’s Bar and Grill’s one-woman play Lady Day.
Her filmography includes Jacob’s Ladder, Loose Cannons, She’s Gotta Have It, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Navy Seals. She won a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and a Screen Actors Guild award for her performance in the HBO film Lackawant to Blues in 2006. She played Lola Delaney in the Los Angeles stage production of William Inge’s Come Back, Little Sheba in 2007. The production began a successful run on Broadway in January 2008, earning Merkerson her second Tony nomination. Merkerson announced his departure from Law & Order: SVU at the end of the show’s twentieth season on April 1, 2010. Her departure from Law & Order, which aired on May 24, 2010, also marked the end of the show.
Merkerson took over as host of Find Our Missing, a reality-reenactment series on TV One that profiles missing people of color, in 2012. She played Lydia Hamilton Smith, the housekeeper to Tommy Lee Jones’s character, Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, in Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film Lincoln. Merkerson appeared in the Primary Stages production of Billy Porter’s While I Still Live in 2014. In 2015, she was cast as Sharon Goodwin, Chief of Patient and Medical Services, on the NBC medical drama Chicago Med. Law & Order creator Dick Wolf, along with Matt Olmstead, Derek Haas, and Michael Brandt, created and wrote the series. Merkerson became a spokesperson for Merck America’s Diabetes Challenge in 2014, with the goal of raising Type 2 diabetes awareness among African Americans.
S. Epatha Merkerson Net Worth
Merkerson has an estimated net worth of 5 million dollars as of 2022.
S. Epatha Merkerson Movies
- 2023 Poker Face
- 2016–Present Chicago P.D.
- 2015–Present Chicago Fire
- 2015–Present Chicago Med
- 2015 Being Mary Jane
- 2014 The Gabby Douglas Story
- 2013 The Good Wife
- 2013 Deception
- 2012 Drop Dead Diva
- 2007 The Closer
- 2007 Girl, Positive
- 2005 Law & Order
- 2005 Lackawanna Blues
- 2002 Law & Order
- 2001 Art:21
- 2001 A Girl Thing
- 2000 Frasier