Lorraine Toussaint

Role: Shambala Green

When deciding upon a career, young Lorraine Toussaint let her fingers do the walking. The actress, who now shifts from playing a successful attorney in "Any Day Now" to an assertive medical examiner in NBC's "Crossing Jordan," gained her initial interest in acting after somebody asked her -- at the age of 11 -- what she wanted to do with her life. Puzzled, she opened the phone directory, turned to the "A" section and found a variety of acting school advertisements. She called the school with the largest ad, and quickly found herself hooked.

Toussaint got her start studying theater at New York's renowned High School of Performing Arts and The Juilliard School. On her graduation day, she landed her first paying job as Lady Macbeth with "Shakespeare & Company." That was just the beginning as she spent 12 years working in New York theater prior to moving to Los Angeles.

Toussaint starred for four seasons as Rene Jackson on the critically acclaimed cable drama "Any Day Now," a role she concluded last year. As a result, she was nominated for four NAACP Image Awards for Best Actress in a Drama Series, a TV Guide Award nomination for Best Actress in a Drama Series and received the Wiley A. Branton Award from the National Bar Association.

Toussaint's other television credits include recurring roles on NBC's Emmy Award-winning drama "Law & Order" and "Murder One" as well as regular series lead roles on "Leaving L.A.," "Where I Live" and "Amazing Grace." She also appeared in several television movies, including "Lullabyes and Lies," "A Case of Deadly Force," "The Cherokee Kid," "Nightjohn," "If These Walls Could Talk," "America's Dream," and the miniseries "Queen," starring Halle Berry.

Toussaint's feature-film credits include "Point of No Return," "Psalms from the Underground," "Breaking In" and "Hudson Hawk."

Upcoming projects for Toussaint include producing the cable television movie "The Joyce Ann Brown Story," which is currently in development.

Toussaint currently resides in Los Angeles. In her free time she enjoys traveling, cooking and hiking with her dog, Kaia. Her birthday is April 4.