Marsha Stephanie Blake

Marsha Stephanie Blake was born in Jamaica on May 3, 1974. She later emigrated to the United States in the late 1980s with her family. Her academic journey led her to Dartmouth College, where she graduated in 1996, followed by an MFA from the graduate acting program at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). These formative years provided a strong foundation for her career in acting.

Blake has established a notable career in both theater and on-screen productions. Her stage work includes roles in Broadway and Off-Broadway productions such as “The Merchant of Venice,” “Come and Gone,” “The Crucible,” “An Octoroon,” and “Hurt Village.” Her television appearances include guest roles in popular series like “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Elementary,” and “The Good Wife.” A significant turning point in her television career came in 2015 when she joined the cast of the Netflix comedy-drama series “Orange Is the New Black” as Berdie Rogers, a role that earned her a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.

Her career continued to gain momentum with her critically acclaimed performance as Linda McCray in Ava DuVernay’s Netflix miniseries “When They See Us” (2019), which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. In 2019, she also took on recurring roles as Vivian Maddox in “How to Get Away with Murder” and Kelly Hodges in “This Is Us.” Her filmography includes roles in “The Laundromat” (2019), “An American Pickle” (2020), and “I’m Your Woman” (2020). More recently, she has appeared in “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey” (2022) and “Wilderness” (2023), further solidifying her presence in the industry. For her role as Ruth in the drama film “Brother” (2022), she received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Supporting Performance in a Film.