Merle Dandridge

Dandridge was born in Okinawa, Japan.[1] Her mother was a local Okinawan of Korean descent and her father was an African American U.S. serviceman from Memphis. As well as Okinawa, Dandridge has lived outside of Wheatland, California, at Beale Air Force Base and later at Offutt Air Force Base (home to the then-Strategic Air Command) in Bellevue, Nebraska, where she spent the majority of her childhood. She attended Papillion La Vista High School and participated in the play production class and theater department there. She then attended the Theatre Conservatory at Roosevelt University (currently called the Chicago College of Performing Arts).[3]

Dandridge began her career appearing in Chicago theatre productions. She has gained a wider audience as the voice of Alyx Vance in the award-winning action game Half-Life 2 and its sequels, Episode One and Episode Two, and also as Marlene in The Last of Us. In 2006, she was cast as Kala in the original Broadway production of Tarzan. Dandridge earned a BAFTA Award for her voiceover performance in the 2015 game Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. On television, she guest starred on NCIS, 24, Criminal Minds, The Newsroom and Drop Dead Diva. In 2012, she was cast in a series regular role as Chief in the NBC drama series Chicago Fire.[4] Dandridge also had the recurring roles in the FX drama series, Sons of Anarchy as Rita Roosevelt, and short-lived The CW teen soap Star-Crossed in 2014. In 2015, she co-starred in the second season of NBC medical drama, The Night Shift as Gwen Gaskin.[5]

In 2015, Dandridge was cast as lead character in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama series, Greenleaf opposite Lynn Whitfield. She plays the role of Grace Greenleaf, Greenleaf's estranged daughter.[6][7] Dandridge has received critical acclaim for her first leading screen role.[8][9][10]

Dandridge starred as Papa Ge the God of death in the Broadway musical revival of Once on This Island, at the Circle in the Square Theater from November 9th 2017 to January 7th, 2018.[11][12] She returned to the role of Papa Ge in a limited run from June 18 to August 19, 2018.[13] Along with cast, she received Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album nomination for cast recording.[14] Also in 2018, she had a recurring role in the CBS comedy series Murphy Brown playing the role of a network boss.[15] In 2020, Dandridge was cast in a series regular role in the eight-episode HBO Max thriller drama series The Flight Attendant.[16]

• Official website
• Merle Dandridge on IMDb
• Merle Dandridge on Twitter