- Height1.68 m
- Tonya was born in Rochester, New York. Her father, Jack, is an entrepreneur, and her mother, Jean, is a homemaker. She has two older brothers and one younger sister. She also has one daughter whom she raised as a single parent.
She has been acting since the age of 4 when she first got the acting bug by portraying Lucy in "A Charlie Brown Christmas" at her preschool. After graduating from high-school, she attended Tisch School of the Arts briefly but returned home to Upstate New York at the beginning of her second semester, to work in the corporate world.
She returned to school as a "non-traditional" student to complete her degree in Theatre Arts at Nazareth College of Rochester and went on to achieve her Masters degree in Human Resource Management from the same institution. Tonya also holds a PhD in Organization & Management with a specialization in Management Education and has made a living both as a Human Resource Professional and an Educational Consultant and College Professor.
In her spare time, Tonya enjoys writing, reading (paranormal romance is her favorite genre), as well as playing hidden object games.- IMDb mini biography by: Tonya Cannon
- Gender / Gender identityFemale
- Is allergic to fresh fruits and fresh vegetables, as well as artificial sweeteners.
- Is also a screenwriter, playwright, and stage director.
- Greatly admires the work of Whoopi Goldberg, Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Robert De Niro, & Charlize Theron among others.
- Enjoys a variety of film genres. "All About Eve," "Imitation of Life" (Lana Turner/Juanita Moore version), "Blithe Spirit," are among some of her favorite classic films.
- 2017: Was accepted into the Women In Film organization.
- Some actors just want to be famous. There's a place for them and God bless. But, there are others, like myself, that would perform and create just for the experience of doing it. It's great if I end up "Halle Berry" status at some point, but that isn't my goal. My goal is to be able to create interesting stories that people want to hear and be able to support myself while doing so.
- As a black female who isn't a size "2," I determined that Hollywood wasn't necessarily going to give me opportunities outside of a narrow lens of what "they" think I can play or do. So, I plan to take what I want by creating compelling stories with solid performances that don't depend on the size of the actress.
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