Biography

Tanya Clarke (born 2 February 1972, Chicago, Illinois) is an American film, television, and stage actress, raised in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Her father, Tony Clarke, was a political and environmental activist (died 19 December 2024). She moved to New York City at age 20 and spent years performing on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional stages, making her Broadway debut in I'm Not Rappaport (2002) opposite Judd Hirsch and Ben Vereen. She is engaged to actor Michael Buie, with whom she has a daughter, Lola (born 2018). Beyond acting, she creates "Liquid Light" functional sculptures exhibited in galleries and museums. She received a Best Actress nomination at the Method Fest Independent Film Festival for Delivery Method (2004). Her most notable screen roles include Becky in A Beautiful Mind (2001) (Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly), Jackie Cristofuoro in Tenderness (2009) (Russell Crowe, Kathryn Hahn), Emily Lotus in Banshee (2015) (Anson Mount, Iwan Rheon), Queen Rynda in Inhumans (2017) (Esai Morales, Kelly Blatz), Adele in I Can Only Imagine (2018) (Dennis Quaid, Lesley Ann Warren), Lorraine Richter in American Horror Story: 1984 (2019) (Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd), Nurse Mary in Dexter: Original Sin (2024) (Michael C. Hall, Patrick Gibson), and Susan Mosser in Unabomber (2026) (Russell Crowe, Jacob Tremblay). She also voiced Nicole Brennan in Dead Space 2 (2011) and the 2023 Dead Space remake.