Danielle Brooks Biography

Danielle Brooks (born September 17, 1989) is an American actress best known for her role as Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson on the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black.

Early life and education

Brooks was born in Augusta, Georgia, and grew up in Greenville, South Carolina in a Christian family; her father was a deacon and her mother a minister. She began acting at the age of six in a nativity play put on by her church. For her final two years of high school, she attended South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts & Humanities, a performing arts school. She studied drama at the Juilliard School and graduated in 2011.

Career

After graduating from Juilliard, Brooks won roles in two theater productions: the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Servant of Two Masters, and Blacken the Bubble. She left both productions in 2013 to join the cast of the Netflix-produced television series Orange Is the New Black, a show about a women's prison based on Piper Kerman's memoir of the same name, as Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson. Her character Taystee was originally intended to be featured in the show for only two episodes, but ended up being written into the rest of the first season. Taystee's on-screen best friend is played by Samira Wiley, with whom Brooks has been friends since they met while studying together at Juilliard. Brooks' performance in Orange Is the New Black has been praised by critics, with one writer from The Daily Beast calling her "the breakout actress of the show and one of the most refreshing and exciting new talents of 2013". Brooks was upgraded from a recurring cast member to a series regular for the show's second season.

In September 2013, Brooks was cast in a Season 3 episode of the HBO series Girls, where she played the first black woman on the show.

On May 27, 2015, the media announced that Brooks would make her Broadway debut in the upcoming fall 2015 revival of The Color Purple as Sofia.

Awards

At the 2014 Young Hollywood Awards, Brooks won the Breakthrough Actress award.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2014	I Dream Too Much	TBA	Filming
2016	Angry Birds	(voice)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2012	Modern Love	Raimy	TV movie
2013	Black Girls Rock! 2013	Herself	TV movie
2013-present	Orange Is the New Black	Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson	29 episodes
2014	Girls	Laura	Episode: "Females Only"
2015	Master of None	Shannon	Episode: "Indians on TV"