The Untold Truth Of S. Epatha Merkerson

S. Epatha Merkerson was born in 1952 in Saginaw, Michigan. In an interview with the Television Academy, Merkerson talked about her youth growing up in Detroit, the youngest of five siblings, raised by her mother after her parent's divorce. Her mother, Anna, was always an enormous influence in Epatha's life, working for the US Postal Service when Epatha was growing up.

When Epatha was a small child, she lived in what she described as a multicultural neighborhood. Epatha attributes her curiosity about other cultures and Black history to living in this neighborhood as a small child. By the time she reached high school, her family had moved to a predominantly white area, being the second Black family to move to the neighborhood. While chatting with the Television Academy, Epatha talked about her high school, Cooley High, being 90% white when she began as a freshman and 50% white by the time she graduated as a senior.

Epatha and her family witnessed what we now call "white flight" firsthand, as her neighbors put their homes up for sale, moving out of Detroit to the suburbs where there was less ethnic diversity. The star remembers the rioting in Detroit during the summer of 1967 when she was a teenager, recalling it being scary. But, she also mentions many advantages to living in the city, like having opportunities to see dance performances and plays, sparking an early interest in the arts and entertainment in Epatha.

After graduating from Wayne State, S. Epatha Merkerson moved to Albany, New York, where she worked in a children's theater. While working at the theater, she toured around upstate New York, performing in schools. In an interview with the Television Academy, Merkerson said this job was "probably the worst job I've ever had," but later shared that the highlight of this experience had been traveling to Rome and Israel with the theater troupe to perform. In 1978, Merkerson moved to New York. The actress said she knew one person there, spending two months sleeping on her friend's floor while she auditioned for stage work, continuing to land roles for nearly a decade.

In 1986, Merkerson auditioned for and was cast in the role of Reba the Mail Lady on the children's show "Pee-wee's Playhouse," starring Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman. The series was spectacularly received, winning multiple awards, including Daytime Emmys, gaining a following with children and adults alike. "Pee-wee's Playhouse" is still considered by many a cult classic. 

Chatting to the Television Academy, Merkerson said, "It was just a mad, crazy, fun job!" Merkerson explained Reubens would allow her to come to set a day early to take everything in because she found the set "distracting" and exciting. As USA Today reported in 2014, Merkerson wasn't the only big star to get their start on the children's show; Laurence Fishburne was cast as Cowboy Curtis.

S. Epatha Merkerson has been advocating for the campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other cancer organizations for years. Within a year of quitting, she got involved in sharing her story. As she shared with WebMD in 2008, "I'm an actor, so what I do is run my mouth. It's not like I can get in front of a group and talk about a CT scan with real authority, but I can talk to young people about my experience." And her experience is both personal and devastating.

In 2006, Merkerson told Real Health Magazine that she was once a three-pack-a-day smoker who had tried to quit for years, "I woke up that morning, and it felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. I could not take a breath. And I just remember lying there, looking at my pack of cigarettes on the nightstand and thinking that the great thing about life is that you always have the opportunity to make another choice — so I did."

Two of the star's best friends, Yvette Hawkins and Billie Neal, died of lung cancer. "One of them passed away in 1995; the other in '97. I was actually there when Yvette took her last breath ... We found out Billie had cancer in June, and she was dead by December. It is an awful, awful way to die." Merkerson's sister, Debbie, was also diagnosed but thankfully recovered. The actress has also worked with CancerCare and the American Lung Association, advocating for people to quit smoking.

S. Epatha Merkerson branched out of acting to produce and direct the 2012 documentary "The Contradictions of Fair Hope" narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. In the film, Merkerson explores a little-known part of American history through the African-American "benevolent societies" that were formed by newly freed slaves after the civil war. Merkerson's film is about the last remaining benevolent society in Alabama. 

In 2012 Merkerson spoke with HuffPost about the documentary saying, "We took the story back to the beginning of the creation of the Benevolent Society, and we come all the way to now to show the way this organization has morphed from what it originally was to what it is now." This documentary was the actor's first foray into producing and directing with her co-director Rockell Metcalf. As The Philadelphia Tribune reported, Merkerson describes her film as "a fascinating albeit disturbing story of what happens when a community steeped in mutual care and concern loses its way and begins to put the 'almighty dollar' ahead of benevolence."

Although most of us know S. Epatha Merkerson for her work on "Law & Order" or "Chicago Med," she began her acting career on stage, and she loved working in theater. In an interview with the Television Academy, Merkerson was effusive about her love of theater and how she initially didn't have aspirations to do screen work. When Merkerson first arrived in New York after graduating college, she found work in Black theater, first in musicals and then as an understudy.

In this interview, Merkerson credits her part of Berniece in the Broadway show "The Piano Lesson" for getting her role in "Law & Order." Merkerson had her first Tony nomination for her role in "The Piano Lesson." But she didn't stop stage acting once she landed on the small screen. According to Broadway World, Merkerson took the role of Lola in the revival of "Come Back, Little Sheba" in 2008 and was nominated for a Tony for her portrayal. She also played Sharon in "The Roommate" in 2017.

S. Epatha Merkerson has been a guest on the PBS series "Finding Your Roots" not once but twice. In Season 5, Episode 5, Merkerson learned of her family history when professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. explained some of her ancestors were part of a group of enslaved people who the Jesuits owned. This was an emotional revelation. In the episode, Merkerson says, "It boggles the mind ... these are men of the cloth." For the descendants of enslaved people, there is so much mystery about their family roots because of the horrors of slavery their ancestors endured.

But Merkerson learned more about these ancestors. On a 2019 panel Merkerson took part in at Georgetown University, following a viewing of the episode of "Finding Your Roots," The Georgetown Voice reported these nine slaves Merkerson is descended from were amongst the 272 people sold in 1838 to finance keeping the university open. After this information was revealed to Merkerson, she tearfully said, "They have names. They're not just faceless people." 

S. Epatha Merkerson was once just a little girl from Detroit with big dreams of moving to New York to become an actress. In an interview with the Television Academy, Merkerson shared how she had four aunts who lived in Queens when she was a girl. She recalled visiting with her family once, and she talked about seeing the lights in Times Square, thinking someday she was going to move to New York too. If her ancestors could see her now, they would be so proud of all her accomplishments and the woman she has become.