CCH Pounder

Pounder was born in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana), daughter of Ronald Urlington Pounder and of Betsy Enid Arnella (née James).[2] She was educated in England, and in 1970, at age 18, she moved to the United States, where she attended Ithaca College.[3]

Pounder made her acting debut in the film All That Jazz (1979). She continued her professional career in New York City theater, where she appeared in The Mighty Gents, by playwright Richard Wesley, and Open Admissions on Broadway. She moved to Los Angeles in 1982.[4] She starred in the film Bagdad Café,[5] and has made smaller appearances in many other successful films.

She has focused primarily on her television career. In the early 1980s, Pounder first appeared in guest roles on Hill Street Blues, and then on several popular shows (The Cosby Show, RoboCop 3, L.A. Law, The X-Files, Living Single, and Quantum Leap) before landing a long-running recurring role as Dr. Angela Hicks on ER, from 1994 to 1997. In the midst of this she co-starred in the Tales From the Crypt feature film Demon Knight (1995). She then returned to guest appearances on other shows, including The Practice, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Millennium, The West Wing (where she was considered for the role of C. J. Cregg), and the short-lived sitcom Women in Prison.

Pounder with Avatar co-star Laz Alonso in December 2009

From 2002 to 2008, she starred as Detective Claudette Wyms in the FX police drama The Shield. For this role she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2005 and an NAACP Image Award.[6] She had previously been nominated for an Emmy in 1995 (for guest starring in The X-Files) and in 1997 (for her supporting role on ER). She has also lent her voice to several video games and animated projects, including Aladdin and the King of Thieves, True Crime: Streets of LA, Gargoyles as Desdemona and Coldfire, and Justice League Unlimited as government agent Amanda Waller, which role she reprised for the animated movie adaption of the comic book Superman/Batman: Public Enemies[7] as well as the video game Batman: Arkham Origins, its sequel Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, and another animated film that takes place in continuity with the games, Batman: Assault on Arkham.

Pounder was also one of the readers for the HBO film Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narrative (2003), directed by Ed Bell and Thomas Lennon.[8] She appeared on the Syfy series Warehouse 13 until its finale on May 19, 2014. Pounder also was one of the stars of Fox's cancelled 2009 sitcom Brothers. Pounder was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her appearance in the BBC/HBO series The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. She had a recurring role as DA Thyne Patterson on the FX crime drama series Sons of Anarchy (2013–14). She co-starred in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013). In Disney's The Lion Guard she voices Kongwe, the wise old turtle. In October 2018, she made an appearance in the London production of Wicked.

As one of the founders of Artists for a New South Africa, Pounder has energized awareness of post-apartheid and HIV/AIDS issues.[9] In an interview, she said about the pandemic: "When it's this massive disease, and it's affecting things in 5,000 different ways, it requires great strength and power—and there is power in numbers. So we need to involve as many people as we can, like we do with ANSA. I call it my little engine that could. It is a remarkable, tiny organization with a huge outreach. We use actors and artists with the biggest voices so they can use every opportunity to talk about AIDS."[10]

In 1997, CCH Pounder was winner of the prestigious Caribbean American Heritage Award for Excellence in the Arts, presented by leading Caribbean American advocacy organization Institute of Caribbean Studies based in Washington, DC.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to C. C. H. Pounder.

• CCH Pounder on IMDb