Birth nameSharon Epatha Merkerson Birth information28 November 1952, Saginaw, Michigan, USA BioA native of Michigan, S. Epatha Merkerson earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Wayne State University. In 1978, she moved to New York City to apply her craft on stage. Although best known since 1993 as the smart and shrewd Lieutenant Anita Van Buren on the long-running TV crime drama "Law & Order" (1990), she has a long list of Broadway and off-Broadway credits and honors that include Drama Desk Award and Tony Award nominations for Best Actress for her performance in the August Wilson play The Piano Lesson (1995) (TV), a 1992 Obie Award for her performance in "I'm Not Stupid," and a 1998 Helen Hayes Award for her starring role in the Studio Theater production in Washington, DC, of the John Henry Redwood play "The Old Settler." Her first appearance on television was a guest-starring role on an episode of "The Cosby Show" (1984). Her earliest regular role in television, however, was that of Reba the Mail Woman on "Pee-wee's Playhouse" (1986). Merkerson remains a theatrical force on the stage and on the screen and has the distinction of having been nominated for an Image Award in the Outstanding-Lead-Actress-in-a-Drama category for "Law & Order" (1990) for three consecutive years by the NAACP.

Volume 65 of "Theatre World," is now available in stores from Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. Billed as "the most complete record of the American theatre," this book celebrates the 2007-2008 theater season and comes complete with lists, photos and more. This edition will include In the Heights, Passing Strange and August: Osage County as well as the revivals of Come Back Little Sheba (with Kevin Anderson and S. Epatha Merkerson), Gypsy (with Patti LuPone, Laura Benanti and Boyd Gaines) and South Pacific (with Kelli O'Hara Paulo Szot). Theatre World, the statistical and pictorial record of the Broadway and off-Broadway season, touring companies, and professional regional companies throughout the United States, has become a classic in its field. The book is complete with cast listings, replacement producers, directors, authors, composers, opening and closing dates, song titles, and much, much more. There are special sections with biographical data, obituary information, listings of annual

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It made it. After spending yet another season's end on the bubble, Law & Order is being welcomed back to NBC for a 16-episode 20th season, where it will tie Gunsmoke as the longest-running prime-time drama on TV. NBC hasn't officially announced the pickup, but sources are telling such things to Variety and other outlets. Law & Order, the daddy of the modern-day procedural and the mother ship of creator Dick Wolf's L&O fleet, will most likely show up on the network's midseason schedule, as it did this year. The detect-and-prosecute series, which still boasts a couple of thesps—Sam Waterston and S. Epatha Merkerson—from the 1990s, is more famous for its...

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It was a dark, rainy afternoon in New York City. On speakerphone with the other executives in Los Angeles, a group of business-clads are studying charts. The New Yorkers are pouring coffee, preparing for a long night of decisions. The La exec's are doing the same and gesture wildly at a flat screen television that's on in the background of our scene. On the screen is a familiar face. It's Jack McCoy. But as we recognize him, we're back in New York. Arms still waving wildly around the table. Meanwhile in La: "We have to pick one!" One says pounding a fist on the table. "How can we decide?" The New York exec's respond, looking for the caffeine rush and taking long swings from their coffee mugs that have a familiar Peacock logo on the side.
Suddenly in La the arms have stopped waving and they are brought down to a low whisper.
Erin Burris

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