TONYA PINKINS

Biography: Oprah describes Tonya Pinkins as one of the "Ten Women in America Who Will Take Your Breath Away in 2004." This Tony Award winning actress and modern day Renaissance woman is the star of Tony Kushner's ("Angels in America") critically acclaimed, hit Broadway musical "Caroline, or Change." For her portrayal of "Caroline," Pinkins has been nominated for the "Best Actress in a Musical" Tony again this year. A single mother of four who also plays "'Livia Frye Cudahy" on the ABC daytime drama, "All My Children," Pinkins made her mark on stage as "Sweet Anita" in "Jelly's Last Jam," for which she received a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle and Clarence Derwent Award and starred in "Play On!" and "The Wild Party." She teaches a workshop called "Tonya Pinkins: The Actorpreneur Attitude."

As a native of Chicago, Illinois, Pinkins was born to hard working, civil servant parents. Although her father was a police officer and insurance salesman and her mother, a postal worker and now a CTA driver, Pinkins always saw herself as an artist. In high school, she studied acting at the Goodman Theatre Young People's Program and a star was born. Over the next 15 years, she performed on Broadway, television and regionally. Between jobs this overachiever returned to college, earning her undergraduate degree from Columbia College in Chicago, attending Carnegie Mellon's music theater program, and even a year at law school in California.

Tonya also teaches "The Actorpreneur Attitude," a course for actors that teaches no acting ? because its premise is that theatrical achievement is not so much about vocal technique or sense memory or looks as about removing "hidden emotional blocks to success."

Needless to say, Pinkins is a modern day Renaissance woman. Just watch her perform and you will know why Oprah says that she will take your breath away!