Chandra Wilson

Chandra Wilson (born August 27, 1969) is a two-time SAG Award-winning American actress.

Wilson was born in Houston, Texas. She started her theater career at the age of five with the Houston-based Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS). Wilson attended Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and went on to the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where she earned a BFA in drama.

Chandra Wilson is so pleased to have been selected by The New York Times as one of "8 to Watch , Onstage and Behind the Scenes" for the Spring of 2004!! The New York Times article
This honor comes in conjunction with her Broadway opening of the acclaimed Caroline, or Change at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, written by Tony Kushner, composed by Jeanine Tesori and directed by George C. Wolfe.

She currently has a supporting role on the ABC drama, Grey's Anatomy. Since the show' premiere as a midseason drama in 2005 it has gone on to a second season and attained hit status with great ratings and rave reviews. On the show she plays Miranda Bailey, known by hospital staff as "The Nazi", a no-nonsense resident who does her jobs better than most attendings. She is in charge of the 5 popular interns on the show played by Ellen Pompeo, Justin Chambers, Katherine Heigl, T.R. Knight, and Sandra Oh. Wilson has received a NAACP Image Award nomination for her role on the show.

This Houston, Texas native began performing in musicals at the age of five with Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS) where she appeared in more than ten of their major musical productions. She attended Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and later went on to acquire her BFA in undergraduate drama from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. There, she spent four years training at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.

Chandra was a series regular on ABC's Bob Patterson in the role of Claudia Hopper. She has made numerous other television appearances, including guest-starring roles on The Sopranos, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Sex and the City, Third Watch, 100 Centre Street, Cosby, Law & Order, and The Cosby Show. She has had recurring roles on One Life to Live and Queens Supreme, and a principle role in the CBS Schoolbreak Special Sexual Considerations. She has also appeared in national television commercials for Blockbuster Video, Burger King, Scope, and the United Negro College Fund as well as numerous radio commercials.

On the big screen, she appears as supporting characters in the films Lone Star, directed by John Sayles and Philadelphia, directed by Jonathan Demme.

On stage, she has portrayed Bonna Willis in the production of The Good Times are Killing Me by Lynda Barry both at the Second Stage and Minetta Lane theatres which won her a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance, Caroline, or Change on Broadway and the Public Theatre, The Miracle Worker at Charlotte Repertory Theatre, Paper Moon: the Musical at the Papermill Playhouse, The Family of Mann by Theresa Rebeck at the Second Stage Theatre, Believing for the Young Playwright's Festival at Playwrights Horizons, Little Shop of Horrors at the Falmouth Playhouse and the Broadway revival of On The Town also directed by George C. Wolfe.

Chandra has two daughters, Serena (1992) and Joy (1994), in addition to a son, Michael (2005). Chandra's character on Grey's Anatomy, Dr. Miranda Bailey, also was pregnant with a boy during the 2005-2006 television season.