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Tenaya Cleveland is an American-born actress and producer. She was born in Hawaii, grew up in California, and has pursued her career from Los Angeles, Atlanta and San Francisco. As a child, she sang in the Malcolm X Jazz Chorus (led by pianist Dick Whittington), alongside greats such as Bobby Hutcherson, Mary Stallings and Richie Cole. At 10, she made her public acting debut as "The Kid" in the play "Bleacher Bums."

After years of acting in theater and small independent films, Cleveland landed a regular background gig on HBO's acclaimed Six Feet Under (2001). This turned into an opportunity to audition for (and land) a speaking role on a season 3 episode, directed by Kathy Bates. After being told that she'd been passed over for a chance at a larger role because of another director's bias toward casting background actors, she quit background acting and committed herself to only booking speaking roles.

Cleveland then started to focus on creating roles for herself by producing independent films. Her passion for the environment and independent filmmaking drew her to work behind the scenes on Josh Tickell's multi-award-winning documentary, Fuel (2008), which won the Audience Award at Sundance Film Festival.

In between shooting scenes for The 12 Lives of Sissy Carlyle (2017), she appeared in small roles on Drop Dead Diva (2009) and Necessary Roughness (2011). Ms. Cleveland was then cast by Tyler Perry in multiple episodes of The Haves and the Have Nots (2013). Her interaction with the show's devoted fans garnered her a small but loyal following, who lovingly dubbed her "Sleeping Beauty," in reaction a scene when her character sleeps through a whispered conversation between her husband and Amanda (played by Robert Pralgo and Jaclyn Betham).

Tenaya is a recurring co-star on The Resident (2018), has appeared on The Haunting of Hill House (2018), MacGyver (2016) and The Vampire Diaries (2009), and continues to pursue her acting and producing career from her Atlanta home base. She has authored articles on acting and independent filmmaking, and served on panels for various film festivals (including the Atlanta Film Festival, where she has been a regular attendee since 2012).

In between acting jobs, she was a chauffeur for a limo company.

Was roommates with actress <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm1548188/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">April Billingsley</a> at the time when they were shooting <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/title/tt3026074/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">The 12 Lives of Sissy Carlyle (2017)</a>.

Her father told her that when she was a kid, she played with <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0000658/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Meryl Streep</a> at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Ms. Cleveland has said that she greatly admires Ms. Streep, and hopes to be able to tell her that story in person someday.

Daughter of actor <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm1570516/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Garrett Dressler</a> and dancer/choreographer Anne Cleveland.

Originally cast in <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/title/tt0248654/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Six Feet Under (2001)</a> as background, she was hand-picked to audition in person for a speaking role. <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0050332/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Alan Ball</a> (creator), <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0000870/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Kathy Bates</a> (director) and <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0813561/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Joey Soloway</a> (writer) cast her on the spot.

Author Stephen Nachmanovitch helped take care of her as a child, and has said that a number of the stories in his book Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art are about her.

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Tenaya Cleveland

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