Tina Lifford is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for her leading role as single mother Joan Mosley in the critically acclaimed but short-lived Fox sitcom '' South Central'' (1994), and her recurring role as Renee Trussell in the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

drama series '' Parenthood'' (2010–2015). She has starring roles in the feature films ''

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile (). The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon Nati ...

'' (1991), '' Blood Work'' (2002), and ''

Hostage A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized—such as a relative, employer, law enforcement, or government—to act, o ...

'' (2005). In 2016, Lifford began starring as Violet Bordelon (Aunt Vi) in the

Oprah Winfrey Network The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN, also known as the OWN Network) is an American multinational basic cable television network which launched on January 1, 2011, effectively replacing the Discovery Health Channel, which one month later merged with ...

drama series, ''

Queen Sugar ''Queen Sugar'' is an American drama television series created and executive produced by Ava DuVernay, with Oprah Winfrey serving as an executive producer. DuVernay also directed the first two episodes. The series is based on the 2014 novel o ...

''.

Life and career

Tina Lifford began her career in the 1980s, appearing on television shows include '' Hill Street Blues'', '' Cagney & Lacey'', and ''

Murder, She Wrote ''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The series f ...

''. From 1983 to 1988, she had the recurring role on ''

Knots Landing ''Knots Landing'' is an American primetime television soap opera that aired on CBS from December 27, 1979, to May 13, 1993. A spin-off of ''Dallas (TV series), Dallas'', it was set in a fictitious coastal suburb of Los Angeles and initially cente ...

''. In film, she made her debut in '' The Ladies Club'' (1986). The following years, she had appeared in films include '' Nuts'' (1987), ''

Colors Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorpt ...

'' (1988), '' Paris Trout'' (1991), ''

'' (1991), '' Letters from a Killer'' (1998), ''

Panic Panic is a sudden sensation of fear, which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety, uncertainty and frantic agitation consistent with a fight-or-flight reaction. ...

'' (2000), ''

Pay It Forward Pay it forward is an expression for describing the beneficiary of a good deed repaying the kindness to others rather than paying it back to the original benefactor. It is also called serial reciprocity. The concept is old, but the particular ph ...

'' (2000), '' Joe Somebody'' (2001), '' Blood Work'' (2002), ''

'' (2005), and ''

Catch and Release Catch and release is a practice within recreational fishing where after capture the fish is Fish hook, unhooked and returned live to the water. Originally adopted in the United Kingdom by Coarse fishing, coarse fishermen to Overfishing, preser ...

'' (2006). Lifford played the leading role as single mother Joan Mosley in the critically acclaimed but short-lived Fox comedy-drama series, '' South Central'' (1994). In addition to her leading role on '' South Central'', Lifford was regular cast member on the short-lived NBC drama, '' Crisis Center'' (1997). She had number of starring roles on the made-for-television movies, include '' The Ernest Green Story'' (1993), ''Run for the Dream: The Gail Devers Story'' (1996) playing Jackie Joyner-Kersee, '' Mandela and de Klerk'' (1997) as

Winnie Mandela Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela-Mandela (born Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela; 26 September 1936 – 2 April 2018), also known as Winnie Mandela, was a South African politician and anti-apartheid activist, second wife of Nelson Mandela. During ...

, ''

The Temptations The Temptations is an American vocal group formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1961 as The Elgins, known for their string of successful singles and albums with Motown from the 1960s to the mid-1970s. The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield ...

'' (1998), and '' The Loretta Claiborne Story'' (2000) starring Kimberly Elise. Over her career, Lifford has guest-starred in over 50 shows, include ''

Touched by an Angel ''Touched by an Angel'' is an American drama television series that premiered on CBS on September 21, 1994, and ran for 211 episodes over nine seasons until its conclusion on April 27, 2003. Created by John Masius and executive produced by Ma ...

'', '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', '' Any Day Now'', ''

NYPD Blue ''NYPD Blue'' is an American police procedural television series set in New York City, exploring the struggles of the fictional 15th Precinct detective squad in Manhattan. Each episode typically intertwines several plots involving an ensemble ca ...

'', '' NCIS'', '' ER'', and '' Nip/Tuck''. She has also had recurring roles on ''

Family Law Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations. Overview Subjects that commonly fall under a nation's body of family law include: * Marriag ...

'' (1999–2001), '' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' (2004–2005), '' Lincoln Heights'' (2007–2009), '' Parenthood'' (2010–2015) as Joy Bryant's mother and ''

Scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way a ...

'' (2015). In 2016, Lifford was cast in her first series regular role since the 1990s, in the

drama ''

,'' produced by

Ava DuVernay Ava Marie DuVernay (; born August 24, 1972) is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer. She is a recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards, Primetime Emmy Awards, two NAACP Image Awards, NAACP Image Awards, a British Academy Film Awards, ...

and

Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American television presenter, talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show' ...

. She played the role of Violet Bordelon, the aunt to the Bordelon siblings Nova ( Rutina Wesley), Ralph Angel ( Kofi Siriboe) and Charley ( Dawn-Lyen Gardner). Violet was a spunky woman involved in a long-term relationship with a younger man (played by Omar Dorsey). For her performance, Lifford received two

NAACP Image Awards The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. The over 40 ...

nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, as well as Black Reel Awards nomination.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lifford, Tina Living people American television actresses American film actresses 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses 20th-century African-American actresses 21st-century African-American actresses Year of birth missing (living people)