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Pernell Walker

Pernell Walker

Acting

Biography

Pernell Walker (born September 19, 1980) is an American actress known for her impactful performances in film, television, and theater. Hailing from the South Bronx, Walker earned a Bachelor of Arts in Theater from City College and a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the Actors Studio Drama School. Walker first garnered attention with her breakout role as Laura in Pariah (2011), an award-winning Focus Features film directed by Dee Rees. Her performance earned critical acclaim and established her as a compelling presence in independent cinema. She further showcased her versatility with roles in television series such as The Deuce (2017–2019), where she portrayed Ruby "Thunder Thighs," and City on a Hill (2021–2022), in which she played Grace Campbell. Her Off-Broadway debut came with the world premiere of SEED (2011), and she has participated in stage readings like Accept/Except, directed by Tony and Emmy Award-winning George Faison. Her stage performances, including roles in Singin' Wid a Sword in Ma Hand and Post Prison Playdate, reflect her commitment to powerful storytelling across mediums. Walker’s television credits include notable appearances in When They See Us (2019), directed by Ava DuVernay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2018), and Dietland (2018). She has also appeared in films like Lost Cat Corona (2017) and Ambition’s Debt (2017). In recent years, her work has continued to expand, with roles in the Netflix series Ripley (2024) and the feature film Weekend in Taipei (2024).

Known For

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
7.9

In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

1999
The Leftovers
7.7

When 2% of the world's population abruptly disappears without explanation, the world struggles to understand just what they're supposed to do about it. This is the story of the people who didn't make the cut.

The Leftovers

2014
The Equalizer
7.3

Robyn McCall, an enigmatic former CIA operative with a mysterious background, uses her extensive skills to help those with nowhere else to turn.

The Equalizer

2021
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
7.1

When a woman is rescued from a doomsday cult and lands in New York City, she must navigate a world she didn't think even existed anymore.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

2015
The Deuce
7.6

The story of the legalization and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New York’s Times Square from the early ’70s through the mid ’80s, exploring the rough-and-tumble world that existed there until the rise of HIV, the violence of the cocaine epidemic and the renewed real estate market ended the bawdy turbulence of the area.

The Deuce

2017
The Night Of
8.0

After a night of partying with a female stranger, a man wakes up to find her stabbed to death and is charged with her murder.

The Night Of

2016
City on a Hill
7.3

In early 90s Boston, an African-American District Attorney comes in from Brooklyn advocating change and forms an unlikely alliance with a corrupt yet venerated FBI veteran invested in maintaining the status quo. Together they take on a family of armored car robbers from Charlestown in a case that grows to encompass and eventually upend Boston’s city-wide criminal justice system.

City on a Hill

2019
The Knick
7.8

Set in downtown New York in 1900, 'The Knick' is centered on the Knickerbocker Hospital and its staff, notably Dr. John Thackery, the hospital's brilliant chief surgeon who pushes medicine's boundaries, pioneering new procedures despite a severe drug addiction.

The Knick

2014
Annie
6.3

Annie is a young, happy foster kid who's also tough enough to make her way on the streets of New York in 2014. Originally left by her parents as a baby with the promise that they'd be back for her someday, it's been a hard knock life ever since with her mean foster mom Miss Hannigan. But everything's about to change when the hard-nosed tycoon and New York mayoral candidate Will Stacks—advised by his brilliant VP and his shrewd and scheming campaign advisor—makes a thinly-veiled campaign move and takes her in. Stacks believes he's her guardian angel, but Annie's self-assured nature and bright, sun-will-come-out-tomorrow outlook on life just might mean it's the other way around.

Annie

2014
RIPLEY
7.9

A grifter in 1960s New York is hired to convince a wealthy man's son to return home from Italy and begins a life of deceit, fraud and murder.

RIPLEY

2024
The Butler
7.3

Cecil Gaines was a sharecropper's son who grew up in the 1920s as a domestic servant for the white family who casually destroyed his. Eventually striking out on his own, Cecil becomes a hotel valet of such efficiency and discreteness in the 1950s that he becomes a butler in the White House itself. There, Cecil would serve numerous US Presidents over the decades as a passive witness of history with the American Civil Rights Movement gaining momentum even as his family has troubles of its own. As his wife, Gloria, struggles with alcoholism and his defiant eldest son, Louis, strives for a just world, Cecil must decide whether he should take action in his own way.

The Butler

2013
Weekend in Taipei
6.4

A former DEA agent and a former undercover operative revisit their romance during a fateful weekend in Taipei, unaware of the dangerous consequences of their past.

Weekend in Taipei

2024
Pariah
6.8

A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.

Pariah

2011
Pariah
2.7

A lesbian teenager unsuccessfully juggles multiple identities to avoid rejection from her friends and family. Mounting pressure from home, school, and within wears the line between her personas thin with explosive consequences.

Pariah

2007
Before I Go
N/A

Emily, a once vibrant and beautiful young woman, confronts her ex-boyfriend for the first time since he sold her into sex trafficking years prior. As their conversation unfolds, we peel back their layers as they wrestle with their fragmented past and the emotional pain Emily has endured. This intense confrontation blurs the line between reality and imagination as Emily grapples with how Tristan has stripped her of her youth, innocence and identity. Will Emily get the revenge and closure that she has longed for?

Before I Go

2024