Multiethnic (African-American / Korean) actress Denyce Lawton is best
known for her four seasons on the six-time NAACP Best Comedy Series
Winner series
House of Payne (2006) from
producer Tyler Perry.
Denyce was born and raised in the New Jersey communities of Belmar and
Neptune (familiar to viewers of the series
Jersey Shore (2009) and later
moved to Washington, DC. She completed middle school and high school in
Prince Georges County, Maryland. Graduating at the top of her class
while taking college course classes her senior year, she participated
in almost every academic program and club the school offered, and was
Vice President of her senior class, She took part in the Biotechnology
Program for gifted students (headed for The medical field), the Future
Teachers of America Club, the yearbook staff, the pom-pom squad, girls
basketball and--what would turn out to be most important to her--the
drama club. After graduation, she studied pre-med at the University Of
Maryland while attending an early studies program at prestigious Johns
Hopkins University.
Denyce began her professional entertainment career as a background
dancer on the Broadway stage and later for such recording artists such
as Ye, *NSYNC,
Mya, Nelly,
Jagged Edge, Ja Rule,
Sean 'Diddy' Combs and many others. She also served
as Assistant Vice President of Urban Promotions at Warner Brother
Records, and later became A&R VP at Priority Records in New York City.
She worked as personal assistant to record executive
Irv Gotti at Murder Inc. Records and Assistant
Junior Publicist at 20th Century Fox Pictures.
She started a modeling career with work for Kemi Oil, FUBU, ADIDAS,
Enyce, Karl Kani and Baby Phat, while gaining acting experience with
roles in New York City's famous "Shakespeare in the Park" series. She
also appeared in music videos for such artists as
Clay Aiken ("The Way"),
112 ("Peaches and Cream"), Nas
("One Mic") and Jaheim ("Anything"), among
others. She has had roles in such TV series as
Castle (2009) and
Entourage (2004) in the feature
films
The Dempsey Sisters (2013),
Soul Plane (2004) and
Act Like You Love Me (2013).
