Award-winning actress and alumnus Ms. Sharon Lawrence will participate in an in-depth public conversation about her career, her time at UNC, and her advice for aspiring actors and media professionals. The event will be Wednesday, November 9, 6:00-7:30PM in 116 Murphey Hall. The event will include a retrospective on her career, an open-ended interview with Professor Joseph Megel, and a Q&A with audience members. This is a fabulous opportunity for fans, thespians, and students to participate in. This event is free and open to the public!
Ms. Lawrence graduated from what was then the Department of Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures in 1983 with a degree in Journalism. While at UNC, she appeared in numerous plays and musicals put on by Playmakers. She has appeared in over one hundred plays, films, and TV series in a career spanning nearly four decades. She may be best known for her multiply Emmy Award-nominated and SAG Award-winning portrayal of ADA Sylvia Costas Sipowicz in NYPD Blue.
Lawrence also played twenty different female characters in the Noel Coward cabaret, Love, Noel at the Wallis. She starred in Sir Noel Coward’s final play, A Song at Twilight, at the Pasadena Playhouse, and as Vivien Leigh in Orson’s Shadow (winner LA Drama Critics Circle Award, nominated for Ovation Award). At the Mark Taper Forum, she created the role of Maureen in the premiere of Theresa Rebeck’s Poor Behavior and was featured in Carl Reiner’s gala, Enter Laughing. Her Broadway credits include revivals of Cabaret, Fiddler On The Roof, and Chicago.
Lawrence chaired the Women In Film Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Women In Film. She is also affiliated with the Board of Directors of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation as well as WeForShe.org, HealTheBay.org and UNC-Chapel Hill General Alumni Association. She received the UNC Distinguished Young Alumna Award in 1998. She is also the 2003 recipient of the Frey Foundation Distinguished Visiting Professorship from UNC. Significantly, she has been a longtime supporter of the Department of Communication’s Hollywood Internship Program and has regularly mentored students looking to make the leap into careers in the entertainment industries.