Name	Anna Deavere Smith
Height
Naionality	American
Date of Birth	18-September-1950
Place of Birth	Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Famous for	Acting

Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is currently the artist in residence at the Center for American Progress. At the beginning of her career, Smith appeared in a wide range of stage productions, including the role of Mistress Quickly in an Off Broadway production of Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor with the Riverside Shakespeare Company, produced by Joseph Papp and the New York Shakespeare Festival, set in New Orleans in post-Civil War America. For the role, Smith transformed herself into a "Cajun voodoo woman," an indication of the actress' transformational power that would manifest itself in her future work.

Smith is best known for her "documentary theatre" style in plays such as Fires in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles, both of which featured Smith as the sole performer of multiple and diverse characters and won her the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show two years in a row. Fires in the Mirror dealt with the 1991 Crown Heights Riot. Twilight: Los Angeles dealt with the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Both of these plays were constructed using material solely from interviews. House Arrest (2000) and Let Me Down Easy (2008) continued in this style.

Smith has appeared in several films, including Philadelphia, The American President, Rent, and Rachel Getting Married. She had recurring roles on The West Wing (National Security Advisor Dr. Nancy McNally) and The Practice. Smith appears as hospital administrator Mrs. Akalitus in the Showtime dark comedy series Nurse Jackie, which premiered in June 2009.