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Chandra Wilson biography

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Quick Facts

  • NAME: Chandra Wilson
  • OCCUPATION: Film Actress, Theater Actress, Television Actress
  • BIRTH DATE: August 27, 1969 (Age: 43)
  • EDUCATION: Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute
  • PLACE OF BIRTH: Houston, Texas
  • ZODIAC SIGN: Virgo

Best Known For

Actress Chandra Wilson is perhaps best know for her role as Dr. Miranda Bailey on ABC’s hit prime-time series Grey’s Anatomy.

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Miranda Bailey on the wildly popular ABC sitcom Grey's Anatomy. The part of Dr. Bailey, supervisor to the hospital interns, had been written for a petite, Caucasian blonde, but Wilson, a full-figured African-American woman, gave such an impressive audition that the show's producers decided to give her the part. "Besides," she later joked,

Contents

"I knew the casting director." Wilson earned rave reviews for her performance as the tough-as-nails Dr. Bailey. Wilson was nominated for four consecutive Emmy Awards (2006-2009) and won four consecutive NAACP Image Awards (2007-2010) for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She also won the 2008 People's Choice Award for Favorite Scene-Stealing Star. In 2009, while still starring on Grey's, Wilson took a brief hiatus from the show to return to Broadway as Mama Morton in a revival of Chicago.

The always-humble Wilson says that the only difference between her acting career now and her acting career a decade ago is that people actually recognize her on the street. "The only difference in my career now is the visibility I have," she insists. "People say I made it now, but I feel like I made it doing summer stock." She is also extraordinarily clear-headed about the fragility of her new-found fame and fortune. Upon finally leaving her job at Deutsche Bank to focus solely on her role in Grey's Anatomy, Wilson was careful not to burn any bridges. She says, "They told me I could come back if acting doesn't work out. I told them, 'Keep my seat warm.'"

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