Tanya currently recurs in the role Crystal Burset in the groundbreaking Netflix original series Orange is the New Black. She starred for seven seasons as Deputy Kenya Jones on HBO’s True Blood and is the founder of HAIRiette, a hair care company for women with dry, curly or coily hair. The HAIRiette haircare line is in nine Whole Foods locations in the Northeast and over 30 beauty supply stores. HAIRiette has also spawned a book (I Found God in My Hair), a YouTube webseries (HAIRiette: Home for the Holidays), and a one-act play based on the principles of I Found God in my Hair to be performed at churches across the United States.

Tanya Wright was born to a 15-year-old mother in the South Bronx, NY. The eldest of 4, Tanya was a shy, creative child who won the “best writer” award in the 5th grade for an imaginative story she wrote about a family and their beautiful Christmas tree, despite the fact her family could not afford one that Christmas.

She starred in the play The Little Birch Tree and played the title role of The Birch Tree where she stood, center stage, for 45 minutes without uttering a word.

Tanya went on to attend George School (a Quaker boarding school in Newtown, PA) along with her sister. Upon graduation, she went to Vassar College where she received a degree in Independent Studies/Comparative Literature. While at Vassar, she auditioned and landed a role of Theo’s girlfriend--Tanya Simpson-- on The Cosby Show. Uncomfortable with the attention she garnered as an actress, she focused on a quieter, more solitary career as a writer —though, she admits, there was something about the craft of acting she was inexplicably drawn to. Nevertheless, she accepted a job as a news clerk at the New York Times, and after 9 months, quit to pursue the craft of acting to “get it out of her system.” After a stint at the prestigious Williamstown Theater Festival, she went to Los Angeles with the intention of staying for 6 weeks and ended up staying for over 10 years working on some of the most critically acclaimed shows in the history of television including ER, “24”, The Good Wife, and countless others.

She wrote, directed, produced and starred in the independent feature film Butterfly Rising and wrote the book of the same name. The music score for Butterfly Risingwas named a finalist in the Jerry Goldsmith Music Film Festival Awards; the film was also a finalist for the HBO Best Feature Film award at the Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival. Wright’s “A Turn to Grace,” a script set against the Harlem Renaissance, was a semi-finalist in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ annual Nicholl’s Screenwriting Competition (the Oscars). Likewise, the Mark Taper Forum’s Blacksmyth’s Playwriting Program performed her “Prelude to a Revolution.”

Wright is diligent about maintaining both physical and spiritual balance in her life and greatly enjoys playing fetch with her 12-year-old Black Lab, Macarena, who appears in many of Tanya’s creations. She speaks at colleges, universities and corporations on topics ranging from artists and entrepreneurship, New Media, and her experiences in Hollywood as an actor/writer/ director. Tanya has taught her BUA class on creativity/entrepreneurship at The New School in NYC, and she is a lifetime member of the Edwin Forrest Society of the Actor’s Fund of America.

Tanya Wright is the recipient of SOBRO’s “Most innovative Business” Award for HAIRiette and is a micro-grant recipient of Lehigh Valley LaunchBox for Entrepreneurs and the Goodwill Ambassador for Peacekeepers Corp a 20-year-old United Nations NGO.  She is a two-time winner of the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) Award, Best Acting Ensemble for her portrayal of Crystal Burset in Orange is the New Black.