Chandra Wilson, the diminutive five-foot tall actress and real life mother of three, is best known for her role as tough-talking Dr. Miranda Bailey in the hit ABC medical drama series, Grey’s Anatomy.
According to Grey’s Anatomy creator, Shonda Rhimes, the actress her casting team had imagined to play Dr. Bailey was short, blonde, white, and female. But most of these characteristics were quickly thrown out the window when Chandra impressed the team with her stunning performance during the auditions. In order to make these auditions, Chandra took a break from her day job at a bank.
Chandra was born on August 27, 1969, in Houston Texas and began acting in theater at the age of five. She started out with the Houston-based Theater Under the Stars (TUTS) and later went to Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She graduated with a BFA in undergraduate drama from the Tisch School of Arts at New York University.
When Chandra was twenty years old she made her television debut with a guest role on The Cosby Show. In 1991 she appeared in the stage production The Good Times are Killing Me at the Minetta Lane Theaters and Second Stage in New York. She won the Theater Award: Outstanding Debut Performance Award for her role.
In 1992 she appeared in the guest role of Serena Price in an episode of Law & Order. The following year she landed a few small roles in two movies, Mad Dog and Glory, starring Bill Murray and Matthew McConaughey.
Chandra hit Broadway for the first time in 1998 with the production of On the Town directed by George C. Wolfe, and then returned back to television in 2000 with a performance on another Bill Cosby program, Cosby. Over the next five years she guest-starred in Third Watch, 100 Center Street, the HBO mega hit Sex and the City, Law & Order: Special Victims’ Unit, ABC series Bob Patterson, Queen’s Supreme, and The Sopranos.
In 2003 she landed an unaccredited part in the comedy Head of State and in 2005 she had a small role as Reba in another big screen production Strangers With Candy, starring Amy Sedaris and Allison Janney.
Chandra landed her role as Dr. Bailey in Grey’s Anatomy in 2005 and in 2006 Chandra received an Emmy and Image nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series and a Screen Actors Guild nod for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series for her role. Also starring in the show are Ellen Pompeo, Patrick Dempsey, Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, Justin Chambers, TR Knight, Isaiah Washington, and Kate Walsh.
Chandra’s third child, a boy named Michael, was born on October 31, 2005, while she was filming the first season of Grey’s Anatomy. Her other two children include daughters Serena, born in 1992, and Joy, born in 1994. Her favorite show is ABC’s The Young and the Restless, which she says she’s been watching every day for fifteen years.
YUDDY
