Tracie Thoms
Thoms at the L.A. Confidential/Belvedere/Water Club/Sapporo Emmy party, September 20, 2008
Born	Tracie Nicole Thoms August 19, 1975 (1975-08-19) (age 34) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2002–present

Tracie Nicole Thoms (born August 19, 1975) 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.

Early life

Thoms was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of Mariana and Donald Thoms.¹ She has a 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.

Career

Thoms is known for her role of Mahandra McGinty in the television show Wonderfalls. 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 release of the 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. Recently, she appeared in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, again, alongside Zoe 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.

Filmography

• Cold Case (2003) - Kat Miller
• Brother to Brother (2004) - Mother
• The Warrior Class (2004) - Thelma
• Everyone's Depressed (2005) - Crystal
• Rent (2005) - Joanne Jefferson
• The Devil Wears Prada (2006) - Lily
• Grindhouse (2007) - Kim (segment Death Proof)
• Descent (2007) - Denise
• Death Proof (2007) - Kim
• Sex And Breakfast (2007) - Sarah
• Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway (2008) - Joanne Jefferson
• Peter and Vandy (2009) - Marissa
• C.R.E.A.M: The American Dream (2009) - Ki Hassan
• The Reapers (2009) - Nikki
• Good Hair (2009) - Herself
• Private Practice (2009) - Collette

References

External links

• Tracie Thoms Bio at CBS TV's Cold Case
• Tracie Thoms at the Internet Movie Database
• Tracie Thoms at Internet Broadway Database
• Official RENT Blog - Includes video blogs and short interviews with the RENT cast