A native of Michigan, S. Epatha Merkerson earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Wayne State University. In 1978, she moved to New York City to apply her craft on stage. Although best known since 1993 as the smart and shrewd Lieutenant Anita Van Buren on the long-running TV crime drama Law & Order, she has a long list of Broadway and off-Broadway credits and honors that include Drama Desk Award and Tony Award nominations for Best Actress for her performance in the August Wilson play The Piano Lesson, a 1992 Obie Award for her performance in "I'm Not Stupid," and a 1998 Helen Hayes Award for her starring role in the Studio Theater production in Washington, DC, of the John Henry Redwood play "The Old Settler." Her first appearance on television was a guest-starring role on an episode of The Cosby Show. Her earliest regular role in television, however, was that of Reba the Mail Woman on Pee-wee's Playhouse. Merkerson remains a theatrical force on the stage and on the screen and has the distinction of having been nominated for an Image Award in the Outstanding-Lead-Actress-in-a-Drama category for Law & Order for three consecutive years by the NAACP.



She wears a wig on "Law & Order" (1990) to cover up her "twist-locs", which have since been cut off and replaced by short-length hair. Was nominated for Broadway's 1990 Tony Award as Best Actress (Featured Role - Play) for August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Has been nominated twice for the Helen Hayes Award, first in 1990 for "The Piano Lesson" (Outstanding Lead Actress-Nonresident Production) and in 1999 for "The Old Settler" (Outstanding Lead Actress-Resident Play), for which she won the award. On a June 11, 2005, episode of the NPR show "Wait wait... Don't tell me!" she claimed that her first name was not Sharon, but rather was "Sweet." This may well have been a jest, but she repeatedly stuck with it. Before studying Acting, she majored in Dance at Wayne State University. Her sister is a lung-cancer survivor. Her favorite "Law & Order" (1990) episode is the first season show "Mushrooms," in which she plays Denise Winters, a woman whose son is mistakenly killed by a boy who, unable to read, fires shots into the wrong apartment. Is the youngest of five children. Won her second Village Voice Obie Award in 2006 for her work in "Birdie Blue." When walking the streets of New York she is frequently approached by members of the NYPD, who jokingly ask how they can be transferred to her precinct. Nominated for the Drama League's Distinguished Performance Award for her work in "Fucking A" (2003), "Birdie Blue" (2006) and "Come Back, Little Sheba" (2008). Nominated for the 2008 NAACP Theatre Award (Best Lead Female) for her performance as Lola in a revival of "Come Back, Little Sheba." The other three nominees, Jeannette Bayardelle, Felicia Fields and Michelle Williams, were all nominated for the work in "The Color Purple".