Birth Name: Tamara R. Tunie
Place of Birth: McKeesport, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Date of Birth: March 14, 1959
Ethnicity: African-American, possibly European and Lenape Native American
Tamara Tunie is an American film, stage, and television actress, director, and producer. She is the daughter of African American parents, Evelyn E. (Hawkins) and James W. Tunie. She was raised in Homestead, Pennsylvania.
Regarding her ethnic background, Tamara has stated in an interview:
Her [Tamara’s character on The Red Road] ancestry is very similar to my own in real life… I have Native American blood. I have African blood. I have European blood. And so it was the first time that a role was presented to me that actually completely embraced my entire DNA makeup, so I was really excited… My Native American heritage was not embraced by our family, and we grew up African-American… so I didn’t have a lot of access or history to that line of my family.
Tamara has also said that one of her paternal great-grandmothers was a full-blooded Native American, from the Ramapough Lenape Nation.
Tamara’s paternal grandparents were Edgar P. Tunie and Effie.
Source: http://www.post-gazette.com
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