Celebrated Actress Regina Taylor and Star of Showtime’s ‘The First Lady’ Returns to Alma Mater to Commemorate the Renaming of L.G. Pinkston High School Fine Arts Department in Her Honor

“The Multiple Emmy-Nominated Actress from I’ll Fly Away, The Unit and Lovecraft Country Attends Building Dedication and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Renamed ‘The Regina Taylor Fine Arts Wing’ in Dallas, Texas!”

On Saturday, April 30, the brand-new L.G. Pinkston High School honored multiple Emmy-nominated actress Regina Taylor and Dallas ISD graduate with a building dedication and ribbon cutting. The naming celebration included remarks and appearances by District 5 Trustee Maxie Johnson, The Honorable Omar Navarez, the Pinkston family, alumni and other distinguished guests. Performances were by The Pinkston Varsity Dance Ensemble and Varsity Band.

Taylor, who currently stars in Showtime’s “The First Lady,” returned to her alma mater to commemorate the occasion.

Following the ceremony, Taylor toured the new building and enjoyed a reception in her honor. L.G. Pinkston High School is located at 2815 Bickers Street in Dallas, Texas.

About Regina Taylor

She is a two-time NAACP Image Award winning actress, playwright and activist, currently playing the role of Marian Shields Robinson, Michelle Obama’s mother in the SHOWTIME anthology series THE FIRST LADY which premiered on Sunday, April 17 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME. 

Taylor is an Actress, Writer and Director

Taylor became best known for her role as Lilly Harper in the iconic TV series I’ll Fly Away (with Sam Waterston). Her poignant characterization won her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a TV Drama, an NAACP Image Award for Most Outstanding Actress in a Drama and Emmy nominations.

In the role of Molly Blane in the CBS action series The Unit, Taylor earned her second NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama. Taylor has starred alongside top leading men in Hollywood including Denzel Washington in Courage Under Fire, Sam Jackson in The Negotiator and Sidney Poitier in a A Good Day to Die. Taylor was the first Black woman to play Juliet in Romeo and Juliet on Broadway and to play a lead in a PBS Masterpiece Theater presentation, Cora Unashamed.

Taylor’s first film was the made-for-TV movie Crisis at Central High​​, starring Joanne Woodward, in which she portrayed Minniejean Brown, one of the first Black students to integrate the Arkansas school system. Taylor next garnered praise for her role as Mrs. Carter, a drug-addicted mother in 1989’s Lean on Me, alongside Morgan Freeman. Other film roles include Spike Lee’s Clockers, Saturday Church and Losing Isaiah.

More recently, Taylor was seen in the mind-bending Lovecraft Country (Jordan Peele, J. J. Abrams, Mischa Greene); The Wonder Years (Saladin K. Patterson, Lee Daniels, Marc Valez, Fred Savage); Red Line (Ava DuVernay); All Day and a Night (Joe Robert Cole, Jeffrey Wright, Ashton Sanders);  Blue Bloods (Tom Selleck); Black List; and Dig.

Taylor is an Award-Winning Playwright and Director

She is currently writing projects for Audible and London’s The Old Vic, and developing, mentoring and directing a new play by Phanesia Pharel for Le Femme Productions in New York.

Taylor is writer-in-residence at New York’s Signature Theatre and is a distinguished artistic associate of Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, where she is one of its most produced playwrights. She wrote and directed Crowns, a play adapted from the photographic essay book of the same name. Crowns has toured the United States, including runs in New York and Washington, becoming one the most-performed musicals in the country and garnering four Helen Hayes Awards (including outstanding directing). 

An avid social activist, Taylor, in conjunction with her alma mater Southern Methodist University, also launched the black album.mixtape. The black album.mixtape invited collaborators from arts, technology, science and activism to submit works exploring questions about the historical significance of 2020 within the scope of COVID-19 and the death of George Floyd. Entries included works of video, music, audio, images, monologues, photos, designs, text, interviews, and self-interviews. Prizes were awarded to winning collaborators.