Hazelle Goodman (born Hazel Goodman; February 16, 1959) is an actress from

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

. As a child she was inspired to become an actress after viewing ''

The Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, '' The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. Se ...

'', before her family moved to New York where she was raised in the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn.

Career

After graduating from

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

with a degree in drama, Goodman spent seven years developing her one-woman show called ''Hazelle!'' The show was adapted for the screen by

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

in 1995, and earned two

Cable Ace The CableACE Award (earlier known as the ACE Awards; ACE was an acronym for "Award for Cable Excellence") is a defunct award that was given by what was then the National Cable Television Association from 1978 to 1997 to honor excellence in Ame ...

nominations in the Best Comedy Special and Best Performer categories. In 1997, she became the first black actress to have a prominent role in a

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

film when she portrayed Cookie, a prostitute in Allen's ''

Deconstructing Harry ''Deconstructing Harry'' is a 1997 American black comedy film written, directed by, and co-starring Woody Allen, alongside Caroline Aaron, Kirstie Alley, Bob Balaban, Richard Benjamin, Eric Bogosian, Billy Crystal, Judy Davis and others. The film ...

''. Goodman also had a recurring role on '' Homicide: Life on the Street'' as Georgia Rae Mahoney, a key figure in a drug dealing family who is eventually murdered. On stage, in addition to her one-woman show, she has also portrayed the Queen in

Shakespeare's William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Cymbeline ''Cymbeline'' , also known as ''The Tragedie of Cymbeline'' or ''Cymbeline, King of Britain'', is a play by William Shakespeare set in British Iron Age, Ancient Britain () and based on legends that formed part of the Matter of Britain concerni ...

'' and took part in the February 10, 2001, staging of

Eve Ensler V, formerly Eve Ensler (; born May 25, 1953), is an American playwright, performer, feminist, and activist. V is best known for her play ''The Vagina Monologues''.

's ''

The Vagina Monologues ''The Vagina Monologues'' is an episodic play written in 1996 by Eve Ensler which developed and premiered at HERE Arts Center, Off-Off-Broadway in New York and was followed by an Off-Broadway run in at Westside Theatre. The play explores cons ...

'' at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

. Goodman went on to write and star in a second one-woman show called ''To the Top, Top, Top!'' She was also an original cast member of ''

Spalding Gray Spalding Gray (June 5, 1941 – January 11, 2004) was an American actor, novelist, playwright, screenwriter and performance artist. He is best known for the autobiographical monologues that he wrote and performed for the theater in the 1980s and ...

: Stories Left to Tell'', performing the late artists monologues that primarily dealt with adventure.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Goodman, Hazelle 1959 births American film actresses American stage actresses American television actresses City College of New York alumni Living people Actresses from New York City Trinidad and Tobago film actresses People from Brooklyn People from Queens, New York 20th-century Trinidad and Tobago actresses 21st-century Trinidad and Tobago actresses Trinidad and Tobago stage actresses Trinidad and Tobago television actresses 21st-century American women 21st-century Trinidad and Tobago actors 20th-century Trinidad and Tobago actors