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T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh
(pronounced Ta-Kee-ah Kristle Kee-Mah)
Actress, writer, producer, director, dancer, singer T'KEYAH CRYSTAL KEYMÁH, (pronounced Ta-Kee-ah Kristle Kee-Mah) is a quiet storm. She is best known for her ubiquitous work on the Emmy Award winning comedy, In Living Color where she won many fans with stunning impressions and an unending stream of original characters. During her five seasons on In Living Color, Keymáh earned an NAACP Image Award Nomination and a Soul Train Comedy Award Nomination. Keymáh then played Scotti Decker, the sexy, general contractor on the ABC comedy, On Our Own, and Denise Everett, an earthy comedy writer, on Fox's The Show. She also guest starred on The John Larroquette Show, The Commish, Quantum Leap and Roc Live. Keymáh gained a whole new set of fans and another two NAACP Image Award nominations as Bill Cosby's newest TV daughter, the flight attendant turned attorney turned aspiring chef turned wife and teacher Erica Lucas, on CBS' COSBY.
She had fun with the character and learned a great deal from one of her first inspirations, Bill Cosby. Today, Keymáh stars as Tanya Baxter along with Rondell Sheridan, Orlando Brown, Kyle Massey, Anneliese Van der Pol and another Cosby kid, Raven, on Disney's zany, adventure packed #1 comedy series, That's So Raven. T'Keyah plays the devoted, suburban mom of Raven, an eccentric and offbeat teenager who has the ability to foresee flashes of the future.
From the age of three, Keymáh entertained her family; singing, dancing and reciting original poems and stories. She wrote her first play and her first song in elementary school. In high school, she performed with the Mary Wong Comedy Group, and produced and directed theatrical variety shows! Florida A & M University's School of Business and Industry recruited the National Merit Scholar. On scholarship, Keymáh excelled in their Leadership program. The university has since given her their second highest honor, 'The Meritorious Award', and she is listed among the 100 most influential FAMUans of the Century.
During and after college, she taught theater, dance, and pantomime. Keymáh even served as an elementary substitute teacher by day, while working in many of Chicago's renowned theaters such as the Court, ETA and The Goodman (where she last played Beneatha in Chuck Smith's 2000 production of A Raisin in the Sun). She also performed with companies such as Wavelength, Chocolate Chips, and Light Opera Works, sang with Rafo International Combo and danced with the Bill Cody Dancers and the Najwa (West African) Dance Corps (with whom she sometimes appears as a guest artist).
Keymáh's other stage performances include Love Letters (with David Alan Grier) and The Five Heartbeats Live (for which she received a NAACP Theater Award nomination). In her one-woman show, Some of My Best Friends: A Collection of Characters Keymáh toured the country playing eleven characters. The critically acclaimed show garnered her NAACP Theater Awards for Best Actress and Best Play and an AUDELCO nomination for Best Solo Performance. She has performed as a singer in plays and at various venues in Chicago, Los Angeles and Senegal, West Africa. Through a collaboration between The Eugene O'Neill Playwright Center and the Moscow Ministry of Culture, T'Keyah was part of a select group of actors sent to Russia to workshop and perform in John Henry Redwood's drama, The Old Settler. Her current project, T'Keyah Live! ... Mostly: A True Variety Show, debuted at the 1999 National Black Theatre Festival to rave reviews. Her film work includes Rusty Cundieff's Tales From the Hood, Quentin Tarantino's, Jackie Brown and Booker T. Mattison's The Gilded Six Bit.
Keymáh has done voice-over guest spots on HBO's Happily Ever After; Disney's American Dragon and Warner Brothers' Hysteria, Pinky & the Brain and Batman Beyond. She created three of the voices for the Fox holiday special Cool Like That, over a dozen for Warner Brothers' Waynehead and the voice of Tweety's newest pal, Aoogah, in Warner Brothers' video feature, Tweety's High Flying Adventure. She is the voice of Bumblebee on Warner Brothers' Teen Titans.
Keymáh has also taken on the challenge of producing films! With actor, writer and director Bobby Mardis, she starred in and executive produced the award winning romantic thriller, One Last Time. For Showtime, the two also produced the acclaimed short subject, Circle of Pain, starring Todd Bridges and Glynn Turman which won 2nd place at the Charleston Worldfest International Film Festival and 3rd place at Temecula Valley International Film Festival. Keymáh is now developing a romantic comedy that she will star in and produce through her own company, T'Keyah Keymáh, Inc. Undaunted by neither the scarcity of opportunity nor the negative images sometimes generated by mainstream Hollywood, she feels that it is imperative to avoid complacency and to "carve your own road." She feels that she has been very fortunate so far, but plans to push her luck!
T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh enriches her life with charitable work and writing. Through the Keymáh Cultural Fund, she supports arts organizations and gives underserved youth opportunities to see live theater. A lifetime member of Delta Sigma Theta, Public Service Sorority, Inc., she also works with the NABSIO prison outreach program and Color Me Bright Youth Foundation. Keymáh is currently working on both a screenplay and a children's project. She is the author of the popular, Natural Woman / Natural Hair: Hairstyles and Hairstories From the Front, with Simple Step-By-Step Instruction of Taking Care of Your Natural Hair. She has co-hosted the National ACT-SO Awards, and the Orange Bowl and Aloha Parades. She enjoys public speaking and directing workshops, especially for youth audiences, and tempers her schedule with a vegan diet, gardening, reading, daily exercise, meditation and prayer. When she has time, T'Keyah loves to travel! She was born on October 13, in Chicago.
