Debbi Morgan

Trivia

• After moving to L.A. in her early '20s, Morgan commenced series television work, with guest appearances on such ethnically oriented sitcoms as What's Happening!!, Good Times, and Sanford.
• Morgan's crowning network achievement arrived at the tail end of the '70s, with her acclaimed portrayal of Elizabeth (Alex Haley's aunt) in the smash miniseries Roots: The Next Generations.
• After a stint on the CBS series Trapper John, M.D. during the early '80s, Morgan discovered, through her agent, that the producers of the wildly popular daytime soap All My Children needed a young African-American actress to portray the romantic interest of the character Jesse (Darnell Williams).
• Morgan auditioned for the role and signed instantly, recurring on the series, intermittently, for 14 years.
• During the early to mid-'80s, Morgan also memorably essayed the part of Ruth Owens, the love interest of track star Jesse Owens (Dorian Harewood), in the critically praised epic telemovie The Jesse Owens Story (1984); in fact, Morgan's plaintive, emotionally charged protests regarding Owens' discriminatory treatment gave the film several of its most memorable scenes and images.
• Morgan continued her TV work throughout the '80s, '90s, and early 2000s, with guest appearances on a myriad of series programs -- everything from The Cosby Show to Boston Public and Charmed.
• During the late '90s, however, Morgan broke from the small screen and made two enduring contributions to A-list features.
• She played Aunt Mozelle in Eve's Bayou, actress-cum-director Kasi Lemmons' acclaimed, finely wrought gothic drama of Southern life, and Mae Thelma Carter, the wife of wrongfully accused and incriminated boxer Rubin Carter (Denzel Washington), in Norman Jewison's Oscar-nominated biopic The Hurricane (1999).
• More recently, Morgan portrayed Twana in director Michael Schultz's cinematization of T.D. Jakes' play, Woman Thou Art Loosed (2004