Danitra Vance Biography

Fast Facts

• Was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for "Jumpin' at the Boneyard" in 1993
• Was "Saturday Night Live's" first openly gay black female cast member, and was made a repertory theater during season 11
• Won an Obie Award and an NAACP Image Award for her work on George C․ Wolfe's plays "The Colored Museum" and "Spunk․"
• Studied at the National College of Education, graduated from Roosevelt University with a degree in Acting and Playwriting in 1975, and earned her Master's in Acting from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts
• Was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1991 and wrote about her struggles in the one-woman play "The Radical Girl's Guide to Mastectomy," which she performed in the same year
• Spent a short time performing with Second City before moving to New York City in 1981
• Started out as a high school teacher in Gary, Indiana while developing her own original characters, which she performed in Chicago night clubs
• Best known as a "Saturday Night Live" cast member and as Jeanette in "Jumpin' at the Boneyard․"
• Was often frustrated with being forced to play stereotypical black female roles on "Saturday Night Live," which prompted her to write parodies like "That Black Girl" and "I Play the Maids․"
• Some of her original characters were Harriet Hetero, Robin the Reluctant Transexual, and Bryn Mawr Smith Radcliffe Vassar