She has also starred in the critically acclaimed independent films Our Song and The Dead Girl, and will be the lead actress in the fall 2011 ABC dramaScandal, a Shonda Rhimes series where Washington will play Olivia Pope, a former crisis management expert to the President.
Washington was born in the The Bronx, New York City, the daughter of Valerie, a professor and educational consultant, and a real estate broker father. She performed with the Tada theater teen group and attended the Spence School in Manhattan, graduating in 1994. Washington went on to earn a Presidential Arts Scholarship to attendThe George Washington University, graduating in 1998.
She also studied at Michael Howard Studios in New York City. Washington was a 1994 winner of YoungArts national program, which cultivates the talent of young artists, and was awarded their Alumni Award in 2011.
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Washington made her screen debut in the ABC telefilm Magical Make-Over (1994). She was in the cast of the 1996PBS sketch comedy-style educational series Standard Deviants, and she appeared in the short "3D" and the feature filmOur Song in 2000. She went on to appear in several movies, including Save the Last Dance (2001), The Human Stain(2003), Spike Lee's She Hate Me (2004), Ray (2004), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Little Man (2006), I Think I Love My Wife (2007), and as a wife of 1970s Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the UK historical drama The Last King of Scotland(2006). Washington has also appeared in the recurring role of Chelina Hall on the ABC television series Boston Legal, and in several episodes of the A&E cable-TV series 100 Centre Street.
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