Lizan Mitchell is a film, Broadway, and television actress known for her roles in the films The Preacher's Wife and The Human Stain. She has also played television roles such as Clara in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Judge Taylor in Guiding Light.
Contents
Early life
Mitchell was raised in the Bluford, Dudley Heights, and Warnersville communities of Greensboro, North Carolina. She attended Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Elementary School, Notre Dame Catholic High School, and North Carolina A&T State University. From an early age, she felt that she was a performer. Her first acting role was portrayal of a witch in a children's play at Bennett College when she was 7 years old.
Although Mitchell's high school was integrated, she felt the effects of racism when plays were produced there. She said, "There were no roles for black students. You were either a slave or you sang (in the chorus) or you could be a servant. We realized it wasn't fair." During her high school years, she and other Black young people were arrested for protesting segregation practices in the community.
Career
Mitchell's career began when she was cast in the Broadway production of So Long on Lonely Street, in which she played Annabel Lee. The production ran from April 3 to May 18, 1986 at the Jack Lawrence Theatre. She was next seen in Ma Rose Off-Broadway, before making appearances on TV in Law & Order and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, among others, in guest roles. She made her feature film debut in 1996 as the Judge in The Preacher's Wife.
She then starred in the U.S. national tour of the stage adaptation of Having Our Say, the story of civil rights leaders Sarah "Sadie" L. Delany and A. Elizabeth "Bessie" Delany. For her performance, Mitchell won a 1997 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for the show's Washington, D.C. run.
In 1999, Mitchell began as a recurring role on Guiding Light as Judge Taylor, before further guest appearances in hit shows such as The Wire and John Adams as Sally Hemings. She was then seen in the films Brother to Brother, The Final Patient and The Human Stain. She also appeared in the Off-Broadway production of Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf as Woman in Purple.
Her performance in Christine Evans' adaptation of The Trojan Women as Hecuba yielded her first Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Play.
In 2013, she co-founded the Quick Silver Theater Co. in New York City focused on works by people of color. Several years later in 2017, she played Ma Pollard in the film, Detroit, and the following year played Grandma Patti in the film, Monsters and Men. She also appeared in two episodes of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt as Clara / Great Aunt.
In 2018, she made her West End debut in Dead and Breathing as Carolyn at the Albany Theatre, and returned to New York stages in cullud wattah, On Sugarland, for which she won an Obie Award, shadow/land, The Half-God of Rainfall and Pygmalion Off-Broadway. She returned to Broadway in 2022's revival of Adrienne Kennedy's Ohio State Murders, alongside Audra McDonald.
In 2025, she appeared as the main character's mother Puddin in the Clubbed Thumb Summerworks Festival premiere of Ro Reddick's Cold War Choir Practice. The show later transferred Off-Broadway in a production at MCC Theater, with Mitchell reprising her role. The show received critical acclaim, and Mitchell was singled out for praise, with The New York Times calling her performance "fabulously funny" and Time Out New York calling her performance "delicious." For her performance, Mitchell was nominated for a Drama Desk Award, Drama League Award and Lucille Lortel Award.
