Tanya Wright

Tanya Wright
Born	The Bronx, New York City
Occupation	Actress, author
Years active	1986–present

Tanya Wright is an actress known for her starring on Buddies as Phyllis Brooks, as well as her recurring roles on 24 as Patty Brooks, NYPD Blue as Officer Maya Anderson, on True Blood as Deputy Kenya Jones, and as Crystal on the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black. Wright's first audition landed her first job as Theo's girlfriend on The Cosby Show when she was a child.

Career

Over the course of her career, Tanya made the decision to start wearing her hair naturally. Tanya wrote a book entitled Butterfly Rising, which was released on August 5, 2012. Tanya is also a screenwriter, having written the screenplay for her book, for which she will also be directing and producing.

Personal life

Tanya Wright was born in The Bronx. Tanya is an alumna of the Oliver Scholars Program and graduated high school from George School, a private Quaker school. She majored in English at Vassar College.

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1998	Mama Flora's Family	Ernestine
1999	Mutiny	Role Unknown
2001	The Brothers	LaMuzindah
2005	Ralph & Stanley	Dr. Reynolds	Short
2010	Butterfly Rising	Rose
2011	Aide-de-Camp	Anna	Short
2012	Why Stop Now	Lisa
	Beyond Control	Tina	Currently in post-production
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	The Cosby Show	Tanya Simpson	Two Episodes: The Card Game and Man Talk
1991	Parker Lewis Can't Lose	Girlfriend	One Episode: Boy Meets Girl
1994	Beverly Hills, 90210	Assistant	One Episode: Intervention
1995	Living Single	Tanya	One Episode: If the Crew Fits
	Family Matters	India	One Episode: We're Going to Disney World: Part 2
1996	The Wayans Bros.	Toya	One Episode: The Odd Couples
	Buddies	Phyllis Brooks	Thirteen Episodes:
	The Jamie Foxx Show	Casey Coles	One Episode: Burned Twice by the Same Flame
1999	Moesha	Andrea	Good Vibrations? and Fired Up
2000–2001	The District	Laura Clayson and Annette Haywood	One Episode: Imperfect Victims and Running Towards Fire
2001–2002	24	Patty Brooks	Eight Episodes:
2002	NYPD Blue	Officer Maya Anderson	Six Episodes: Better Laid than Never: Part I, Better Laid than Never: Part II, Ho Down, You've Got Mail, One in the Nuts and Maya Con Dios
2003–2004	The Handler	Marcy	Sixteen Episodes:
2004	Strong Medicine	Lily's Mother	One Episode: Touched by an Idol
2006	Windfall	Dr. Bailey	One Episode: Urgent Care
2007	ER	Megan Strand	One Episode: Sea Change
	Standoff	Diana Marsh	One Episode: Lie to Me
2008–2012,2014	True Blood	Deputy Kenya Jones recurring
2013–present	Orange Is the New Black	Crystal	recurring

External links

• Tanya Wright at the Internet Movie Database
• Tanya Wright on Twitter