Bio
Regina Taylor is an American actress and playwright best known for her starring roles in television as housekeeper Lilly Harper in I'll Fly Away (1991-1994) and as Molly Blaine, the tough-minded housewife who holds the women of the Unit together when their men are on covert assignments, in the action series The Unit, from 2006-2009.
For her role as Lilly Harper in I'll Fly Away she won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series, an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
She made her professional acting debut on CBS in the movie Crisis at Central High (1981).
Her other television credits include the series The Education of Max Bickford and Feds, both on CBS, as well as television movies In From the Night, Cora Unashamed, Strange Justice, The Third Twin Hostile Waters, Children of the Dust, I'll Fly Away: Then and Now, Howard Beach: Making a Case for Murder, Concealed Enemies and Nurse.
Taylor's feature film credits include The Negotiator, Courage Under Fire, A Family Thing, The Keeper, Clockers, Losing Isaiah, Jersey Girl and Lean on Me.
She was the first black woman to play William Shakespeare's Juliet in Broadway's Romeo and Juliet. Her other theatre credits include As You Like It, Macbeth, Machinal, A Map of The World, The Illusion and Jar the Floor.
In addition, she won the L.A. Dramalogue Award for her performance in The Tempest on the west coast.
Her credits as playwright include Oo-Bla-Dee, for which she won the American Critics' Association new play award, Drowning Crow (her adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull, which was produced on Broadway by Manhattan Theatre Club in its inaugural season at the Biltmore Theatre and starred Alfre Woodard), A Night in Tunisia, Escape from Paradise, Watermelon Rinds and Inside the Belly of the Beast.
Taylor's critically acclaimed Crowns was 2005's most performed musical in America.
Taylor is a member and Artistic Associate of the Goodman Theatre. She was raised in Dallas and currently resides there.