Denyce Lawton

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).