Tracie Thoms
Encyclopedia
Tracie Nicole Thoms is an American
television
, film
, and stage
actress. She is best known for her roles in Rent
, Cold Case, The Devil Wears Prada
, Death Proof
, and the short-lived Fox
television series Wonderfalls
.
, Maryland
, the daughter of Mariana and Donald H. Thoms. She has a younger brother, Austin. She started studying acting when she was ten and later on attended the Baltimore School for the Arts
. She now holds a BFA
from Howard University
and a postgraduate diploma in acting from the Juilliard School
(Group 30), where she was a classmate of actors Lee Pace
and Anthony Mackie
.
. She also played the part of Sasha in the US version of the T.V. series As If
, which was cancelled after three episodes. Most recently she has been added to the cast of the CBS crime drama Cold Case, as the homicide detective, Kat Miller. Thoms has also made guest appearances on Law & Order
and The Shield
.
Thoms has appeared in several movies, most notably in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Rent
in which she plays Joanne Jefferson, lawyer and lover of Maureen Johnson (Idina Menzel
). She took over the role from Fredi Walker
, who played Joanne in the original Broadway
production of Rent
but decided not to reprise her role due to her age. Prior to being cast as Joanne, Thoms had considered herself a fan of the show, having seen it on Broadway several times.
She was featured in the 2002 Comedy Central film Porn 'n Chicken
and the 2004 films Brother to Brother and The Warrior Class. Thoms appeared in the 2006 film version of The Devil Wears Prada
as Lily. Thoms has completed filming on the City Lights Pictures movie Descent along with Rent co-stars Wilson Jermaine Heredia
and Rosario Dawson
and will soon begin filming Jimmie with co-stars Vanessa Williams
and Brian McKnight
. She appeared in Quentin Tarantino
's Death Proof
, alongside Zoë Bell
, Rosario Dawson and Mary Elizabeth Winstead
.
Thoms made her Broadway debut in Regina Taylor's Drowning Crow. She has also appeared in several off-Broadway and regional productions, including Up Against the Wind (New York Theater Workshop), The Oedipus Plays (The Shakespeare Theater), A Raisin in the Sun
(Baltimore CenterStage
) Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Missouri Rep), The Exonerated (Off Broadway's The Culture Project) and The Antigone Project (The Women's Project). On July 18, 2008, she joined the final cast of Rent starting July 26, 2008, reprising the character of Joanne, replacing Merle Dandridge
. The final performance was made into a DVD: Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway
.
Thoms reprised her role as Joanne for another production of Rent, directed by Neil Patrick Harris
, at the Hollywood Bowl from August 6–8, 2010.
In the fall of 2010 she appeared in the concert revue For The Record: Quentin Tarantino in Los Angeles, presented by ROCKLA for Show at Barre. It ran from August 12, 2010, to October 30, 2010, and also starred Jenna Leigh Green
, Autumn Reeser
, Ty Taylor
, and Audra Mae
. From November 2010 through January 2011, Thoms starred in Show At Barre's For The Record: John Hughes, alongside Barrett Foa
, Von Smith
and Ty Taylor. In 2011 she appeared at Show At Barre in the revue For the Record: Baz Luhrmann, from February 12, 2011, to June 30, 2011, with Jenna Leigh Green, Arielle Jacobs
, Tinuke Oyefule and Kate Reinders
.
She played Etta, Diana's personal assistant, in NBC
's Wonder Woman pilot.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, and stage
Stage (theatre)
In theatre or performance arts, the stage is a designated space for the performance productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the members of the audience...
actress. She is best known for her roles in Rent
Rent (film)
Rent is a 2005 American musical drama film directed by Chris Columbus. It is an adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, in turn based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème. The film depicts the lives of several Bohemians and their struggles with sexuality, cross-dressing, drugs, life...
, Cold Case, The Devil Wears Prada
The Devil Wears Prada (film)
The Devil Wears Prada is a 2006 comedy-drama film, a loose screen adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel of the same name. It stars Anne Hathaway as Andrea Sachs, a recent college graduate who goes to New York City and gets a job as a co-assistant to powerful and demanding fashion magazine...
, Death Proof
Death Proof
Death Proof is a 2007 American action thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film centers on a psychopathic stunt man who stalks young women before murdering them in staged car accidents using his "death-proof" stunt car...
, and the short-lived Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
television series Wonderfalls
Wonderfalls
Wonderfalls is a comedy-drama television series that was broadcast on the Fox television network in 2004.The show centres on Jaye Tyler , a recent Brown University graduate with a philosophy degree, who holds a dead-end job as a sales clerk at a Niagara Falls gift shop...
.
Early life
Thoms was born and raised in BaltimoreBaltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, the daughter of Mariana and Donald H. Thoms. She has a younger brother, Austin. She started studying acting when she was ten and later on attended the Baltimore School for the Arts
Baltimore School for the Arts
Baltimore School for the Arts is a public high school located in Baltimore, Maryland and is a part of its public school system. BSA offers concentrations in classical music, theater, dance, theater production and visual art...
. She now holds a BFA
Bachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...
from Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
and a postgraduate diploma in acting from the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
(Group 30), where she was a classmate of actors Lee Pace
Lee Pace
Lee Grinner Pace is an American actor. Pace has been featured in film, stage and television. He is known best for his starring role as Ned in the ABC series Pushing Daisies for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe award and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2008.-...
and Anthony Mackie
Anthony Mackie
Anthony Mackie is an American actor. He has been featured in feature films, television series and Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, including Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Drowning Crow, McReele, A Soldier's Play, and Talk, by Carl Hancock Rux, for which he won an Obie Award in 2002.In 2002 he featured...
.
Career
Thoms is known for her role of Mahandra McGinty in the television show WonderfallsWonderfalls
Wonderfalls is a comedy-drama television series that was broadcast on the Fox television network in 2004.The show centres on Jaye Tyler , a recent Brown University graduate with a philosophy degree, who holds a dead-end job as a sales clerk at a Niagara Falls gift shop...
. She also played the part of Sasha in the US version of the T.V. series As If
As If (U.S. TV series)
As If is an American teen comedy-drama series that was put in place as a midseason replacement for Roswell and aired on Tuesdays on UPN after Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was based on the successful UK series of the same name...
, which was cancelled after three episodes. Most recently she has been added to the cast of the CBS crime drama Cold Case, as the homicide detective, Kat Miller. Thoms has also made guest appearances on Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
and The Shield
The Shield
The Shield is an American television drama series starring Michael Chiklis which premiered on March 12, 2002 on FX in the United States and concluded on November 25, 2008 after seven seasons...
.
Thoms has appeared in several movies, most notably in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Rent
Rent (film)
Rent is a 2005 American musical drama film directed by Chris Columbus. It is an adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, in turn based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème. The film depicts the lives of several Bohemians and their struggles with sexuality, cross-dressing, drugs, life...
in which she plays Joanne Jefferson, lawyer and lover of Maureen Johnson (Idina Menzel
Idina Menzel
Idina Kim Menzel is an American actress, singer and songwriter. She is widely known for originating the roles of Maureen in Rent and Elphaba in Wicked.-Early life:...
). She took over the role from Fredi Walker
Fredi Walker
Fredi Walker is an American actress, director and theatre producer.Her Broadway debut was the role of Joanne Jefferson, the high-class lawyer and lesbian lover of Maureen Johnson , in the original Broadway cast of Rent. She also toured nationally with The Lion King as Rafiki...
, who played Joanne in the original Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production of Rent
Rent (musical)
Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...
but decided not to reprise her role due to her age. Prior to being cast as Joanne, Thoms had considered herself a fan of the show, having seen it on Broadway several times.
She was featured in the 2002 Comedy Central film Porn 'n Chicken
Porn 'n Chicken
Porn 'n Chicken was a club based at Yale University. The secret society blazed briefly in the headlines in 2001 when members announced plans to make their own pornographic film on campus starring other Yale students, although the film was never released or even completed...
and the 2004 films Brother to Brother and The Warrior Class. Thoms appeared in the 2006 film version of The Devil Wears Prada
The Devil Wears Prada (film)
The Devil Wears Prada is a 2006 comedy-drama film, a loose screen adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel of the same name. It stars Anne Hathaway as Andrea Sachs, a recent college graduate who goes to New York City and gets a job as a co-assistant to powerful and demanding fashion magazine...
as Lily. Thoms has completed filming on the City Lights Pictures movie Descent along with Rent co-stars Wilson Jermaine Heredia
Wilson Jermaine Heredia
Wilson Jermaine Heredia is an American actor best known for his portrayal of Angel Dumott Schunard in the Broadway musical Rent, for which he won the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actor in a musical...
and Rosario Dawson
Rosario Dawson
Rosario Isabel Dawson is an American actress, singer, and writer. She has appeared in films such as Kids, Men in Black II, 25th Hour, Sin City, Clerks II, Rent, Death Proof, The Rundown, Eagle Eye, Alexander, Seven Pounds, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Unstoppable.-Early...
and will soon begin filming Jimmie with co-stars Vanessa Williams
Vanessa A. Williams
Vanessa A. Williams is an American actress who has appeared in several television series such as Melrose Place and the Showtime cable television series Soul Food. In 1996, she was featured in the television series Murder One...
and Brian McKnight
Brian McKnight
Brian McKnight is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, producer, and R&B/Pop musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist who plays nine instruments: piano, guitar, bass guitar, drums, percussions, trombone, tuba, flugelhorn and trumpet....
. She appeared in Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
's Death Proof
Death Proof
Death Proof is a 2007 American action thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film centers on a psychopathic stunt man who stalks young women before murdering them in staged car accidents using his "death-proof" stunt car...
, alongside Zoë Bell
Zoë Bell
Zoë E. Bell is a stuntwoman and actress from New Zealand. Some of her most notable stunt work includes doubling for Lucy Lawless on Xena: Warrior Princess and for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. As an actress, she has appeared both on television and in feature films and also starred in the web series...
, Rosario Dawson and Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is an American actress. She is best known for her scream queen roles in the horror films Final Destination 3, Black Christmas, Death Proof, and The Thing...
.
Thoms made her Broadway debut in Regina Taylor's Drowning Crow. She has also appeared in several off-Broadway and regional productions, including Up Against the Wind (New York Theater Workshop), The Oedipus Plays (The Shakespeare Theater), A Raisin in the Sun
A Raisin in the Sun
A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes...
(Baltimore CenterStage
Center Stage (theater)
Center Stage is the state theater of Maryland and Baltimore's largest professional producing theater. Center Stage was founded in 1963 as a regional playhouse....
) Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Missouri Rep), The Exonerated (Off Broadway's The Culture Project) and The Antigone Project (The Women's Project). On July 18, 2008, she joined the final cast of Rent starting July 26, 2008, reprising the character of Joanne, replacing Merle Dandridge
Merle Dandridge
Merle Dandridge is an American actress who was born in Okinawa, Japan. Her father was an African-American US serviceman from Memphis and her mother was a local Okinawan of Korean and Japanese descent. Dandridge is primarily a stage actress, but has had several roles in television...
. The final performance was made into a DVD: Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway
Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway
Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway is a 2008 film of the final performance of the original Broadway production of the musical Rent on September 7, 2008, with some footage of the closing night celebration. The film had a limited theatrical release between September 24 and 28, 2008, in more than 500...
.
Thoms reprised her role as Joanne for another production of Rent, directed by Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris is an American actor, singer, director, and magician.Prominent roles of his career include the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D., Colonel Carl Jenkins in Starship Troopers, the womanizing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold...
, at the Hollywood Bowl from August 6–8, 2010.
In the fall of 2010 she appeared in the concert revue For The Record: Quentin Tarantino in Los Angeles, presented by ROCKLA for Show at Barre. It ran from August 12, 2010, to October 30, 2010, and also starred Jenna Leigh Green
Jenna Leigh Green
Jenna Leigh Green is an American actress and singer best known for her performances as Libby Chessler on the television show Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and on Broadway and on tour in the musical Wicked.-Early life and career:...
, Autumn Reeser
Autumn Reeser
Autumn Alicia Reeser is an American actress and blogger. She has portrayed Taylor Townsend on the Fox series The O.C., Lizzie Grant on HBO's Entourage and most recently appeared as Katie Andrews on ABC's No Ordinary Family....
, Ty Taylor
Ty Taylor
Ty Taylor is an American musician best known for being the guitarist and vocalist of R&B group Dakota Moon and was also a contestant on the reality TV show Rock Star: INXS. He is currently the lead singer and guitarist for Los Angeles based Soul/Rock band, Vintage Trouble...
, and Audra Mae
Audra Mae
Audra Mae is an American singer-songwriter from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Audra Mae is the great-great-niece of Judy Garland, who was her great-grandmother's sister....
. From November 2010 through January 2011, Thoms starred in Show At Barre's For The Record: John Hughes, alongside Barrett Foa
Barrett Foa
Barrett Foa is an American actor. He portrays Eric Beale on the CBS television series NCIS: Los Angeles.-Early life:...
, Von Smith
Von Smith
Vaughn Lee "Von" Smith is an American singer and internet personality.-Career:Smith gained some success via his YouTube videos. These garnered him national attention, which led to an appearance on The View on 27 February 2007...
and Ty Taylor. In 2011 she appeared at Show At Barre in the revue For the Record: Baz Luhrmann, from February 12, 2011, to June 30, 2011, with Jenna Leigh Green, Arielle Jacobs
Arielle Jacobs
Arielle Jacobs is a Filipino-American actress, mostly seen on stage in musicals.- Biography :Jacobs was born in San Francisco, with a Filipino mother and an American father. She later moved to Half Moon Bay, California, and then to New York...
, Tinuke Oyefule and Kate Reinders
Kate Reinders
Kate Reinders is an American musical theatre actress, who has performed as lead and understudy in several Broadway shows. Reinders was born in Seattle, Washington, but raised in Muskegon, Michigan...
.
She played Etta, Diana's personal assistant, in NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Wonder Woman pilot.
Filmography
- Wonder WomanWonder Woman (TV series)Wonder Woman is an American television series based on the DC Comics comic book superhero of the same name. Starring Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman/Diana Prince and Lyle Waggoner as Steve Trevor, the show originally aired from 1975 to 1979....
(2011) - Etta Candy (Cancelled) - Cold Case (2005–2010) - Detective Kat Miller
- Brother to Brother (2004) - Mother
- The Warrior ClassThe Warrior ClassThe Warrior Class is a 2004 film directed by Alan Hruska which stars Anson Mount and Erica Leerhsen. Even though it was finished in 2004, it was not released on DVD until February 6, 2007.-Plot:...
(2004) - Thelma - Everyone's Depressed (2005) - Crystal
- RentRent (film)Rent is a 2005 American musical drama film directed by Chris Columbus. It is an adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, in turn based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème. The film depicts the lives of several Bohemians and their struggles with sexuality, cross-dressing, drugs, life...
(2005) - Joanne Jefferson - The Devil Wears PradaThe Devil Wears Prada (film)The Devil Wears Prada is a 2006 comedy-drama film, a loose screen adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel of the same name. It stars Anne Hathaway as Andrea Sachs, a recent college graduate who goes to New York City and gets a job as a co-assistant to powerful and demanding fashion magazine...
(2007) - Lily - Grindhouse (2007) - Kim (segment Death ProofDeath ProofDeath Proof is a 2007 American action thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film centers on a psychopathic stunt man who stalks young women before murdering them in staged car accidents using his "death-proof" stunt car...
) - DescentDescent (2007 film)Descent is a 2007 American thriller film directed by Talia Lugacy and starring Rosario Dawson and Chad Faust.-Plot summary:Maya is a college student who is date raped...
(2007) - Denise - Sex And BreakfastSex and BreakfastSex and Breakfast is a 2007 dark comedy independent film starring Macaulay Culkin, Eliza Dushku, Alexis Dziena and Kuno Becker. Shooting took place in September 2006. The film opened in Los Angeles November 30, 2007, and was released on DVD on January 22, 2008 by First Look Pictures. The film was...
(2007) - Sarah - Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway (2008) - Joanne Jefferson
- Peter and VandyPeter and VandyPeter and Vandy is a 2009 American romantic independent drama film starring Jason Ritter and Jess Weixler. The film was written and directed by Jay DiPietro, adapted from his own play of the same name which opened in 2002 in New York.-Plot:...
(2009) - Marissa - C.R.E.A.M: The American Dream (2009) - Ki Hassan
- The Reapers (2009) - Nikki
- Good HairGood HairGood Hair is a 2009 American comedy documentary film produced by Chris Rock Productions and HBO Films, starring and narrated by comedian Chris Rock. Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2009, Good Hair was released to select theaters in the United States by Roadside Attractions...
(2009) - Herself - Private Practice (2009) - Collette
- Harry's LawHarry's LawHarry's Law is an American legal comedy-drama television series created by David E. Kelley. which premiered on January 17, 2011.On May 12, 2011, NBC renewed the show for a second season, which premiered Wednesday September 21, 2011...
(2011) - Kathryn Kepler Asst. DA
External links
- Tracie Thoms Bio at CBS TV's Cold Case
- Tracie Thoms at Internet Broadway DatabaseInternet Broadway DatabaseThe Internet Broadway Database is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade association for the North American commercial theatre community....
- Official RENT Blog - Includes video blogs and short interviews with the RENT cast