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 to cover up her corn braids, which have since been cut off and replaced by short-length hair. With Jerry Orbach's departure from Law & Order in 2004 after playing the role of Detective Lennie Briscoe for twelve years, she is now the longest-running cast member. She joined the series as Lt. Anita Van Buren in 1993 at the beginning of the show's fourth season. Was nominated for Broadway's 1990 Tony Award as Best Actress (Featured Role - Play) for August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." In 2002, she received the Regulus Award from the Cancer Care organization for her dedication to lung-cancer awareness and education. The award was presented by her "Law & Order" (1990)_ co-star, Jesse L. Martin. 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. Her Law & Order character, Lt. Anita Van Buren, whom she has played since 1993, is the longest running African American character in an American television drama. 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. Smoked for twenty years before quitting. Before studying Acting, she majored in Dance at Wayne State University. Works with Justice Works Community, a group "advocating for humane policies towards women in prison, especially those with children." Her sister is a lung-cancer survivor. Owes much of her success to casting director Meg Simon. Her favorite Law & Order 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. Her parents are originally from the South, and came to Michigan (Merkerson's birthplace) in search of work. Is the youngest of five children. In April 2006, co-star Jesse L. Martin presented Merkerson with the Entertainer of the Year Award at the SunDeis Film Festival at Brandeis Universty. Won her second Village Voice Obie Award in 2006 for her work in "Birdie Blue." Along with Jerry Orbach and Annie Parisse, one of only 3 Law & Order cast members to play a different character in an episode before joining the cast in a later season. (Michael Imperioli also played multiple roles, but was not a permanent addition to the cast as Det. Falco.)