Shamika Cotton

Shamika Cotton
Shamika Cotton with her friend Bob Ketchum at The Wire wrap party
Born	Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Other names	Shamika Lee Cotton
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2003–present

Shamika Cotton is an American actress from Cincinnati, Ohio. She is perhaps best known to television viewers as Michael Lee's drug-addicted mother Raylene Lee in the acclaimed HBO series The Wire.

Career

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Shamika Cotton graduated from Cincinnati's competitive School for Creative and Performing Arts.[1] In 2006, Cotton appeared on the I Wanna Be A Soap Star reality series to good reviews, and her performances from the show were also highlighted on Entertainment Tonight.

In November, 2007, Cotton launched a weekly videocast on YouTube entitled the “Shamika Chronicles”,[2] a series that follows her life and offers a realistic look at the daily life and work of an aspiring actress.

In 2019, she played small role in the movie The Sun Is Also a Star.

Filmography

Film/Movie

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Till Death Do Us Part	-	Short
2009	Stream	Young Jodi	Short
2011	Pariah	Candace
2013	Frank the Bastard	Isolda
2015	Sidewalk Traffic	Nanny Moon
2019	The Sun Is Also a Star	Hannah

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	Nickelodeon Magazine's Big 10 Birthday Bash	Herself	TV special
2006	As the World Turns	ER Doctor	2 episodes
2006-08	The Wire	Raylene Lee	Recurring cast: Season 4, guest: Season 5
2007	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Kira Danforth	Episode: "Self-made"
2010	Law & Order	Mrs. Dolan	Episode: "Boy on Fire"
2013	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Carol McEwan	Episode: "Beautiful Frame"
2014-15	Forever	Anita	Recurring cast
2016	Gotham	Officer Holt	Episode: "Wrath of the Villains: Mr. Freeze"
2019	The Blacklist	FBI Physician	Episode: "Dr. Hans Koehler (No. 33)"
	The Good Fight	Wendy	Episode: "The One About the Recent Troubles"
	God Friended Me	Jen	Episode: "Return to Sender"
	Elementary	Rose	Episode: "Their Last Bow"
	Blue Bloods	Detective Kim Andrews	Episode: "Naughty or Nice"
	New Amsterdam	Martha Randle	Episode: "The Island"
2020	Prodigal Son	Joanne	Episode: "Stranger Beside You"
2021	The Equalizer	Nicole	Episode: "Reckoning"
2022	P-Valley	Farrah Haynes	Recurring cast: season 2

References

1. "Shamika Cotton official website". Retrieved 2010-01-01.
2. "Shamika Chronicles". Youtube.com. Retrieved 2010-01-01.

External links

• Shamika Cotton at IMDb