Nilaja Sun

Born and raised in New York City, Nilaja Sun's journey to the screen was unconventional. Although Sun's love was the stage, she wanted more. As a performer with the National Shakespeare Company, she performed "Romeo and Juliet" for high school students, then would lead classroom discussions about the play. The experience drove her to become a teaching artist and spend much of her time in classrooms with difficult students, trying to teach them the value of art, specifically theater. Her victories and failures in the classroom led her to create her one-woman show "No Child " The show premiered off-Broadway in 2006 and was an instant success. Critics and audiences could not rave enough, and Sun gathered awards including an Obie Award, the Helen Hayes Award, and two NAACP Theatre Awards. "No Child " Was also named Best One-Person Show at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. Sun toured the U.S. and the world performing the show. Her screen work didn't begin until 2004, when she appeared in a small guest role on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (NBC, 1999-). Sun continued to play guest roles in film and TV, most notably in the Tom Cruise film "Knight and Day" (2010) and a recurring role on the political drama "Madam Secretary" (CBS, 2014-).