Donzaleigh Abernathy won the Tanne Foundation 2012 Artist Award for her work as an actress and for her script, “Birmingham Sunday.” She starred for four years in over 60 Episodes as a Series Regular on Lifetime Television’s critically acclaimed dramatic series, “Any Day Now.” She received recognition from Film Critic Roger Ebert for her performance in the Warner Bros. film, “Gods And Generals.” She starred as the leading lady in the Emmy and Golden Globe winning HBO Film, “Don King-Only in America,” opposite Ving Rhames. In the HBO Emmy and Golden Globe winning “Miss Evers Boys,” she co-starred with Alfre Woodard and in NBC’s “The Tempest” opposite Golden Globe Award winner, Peter Fonda. She also starred in New Line Cinema’s comedy “Grilled” and Lions Gate’s comedy “Leprechan 6 – Back 2 ‘Da Hood.” She starred in the Directors Guild of America Award Winning, “Murder In Mississippi.”
Audiences also know her from her recurring roles on the TV Series, “EZ Streets,” “Commander-In-Chief,” “Lincoln Heights,” “Dangerous Minds,” and “Amazing Grace.” She has starred in several Television Movies, “Fatal Exposure,” “Abducted – A Father’s Love,” “Ned Blessing” and “Grassroots.”
Emory University’s Brave New Works Project produced her screenplay, “Partners to History.” For the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus and National Black Arts Festival at Atlanta’s Symphony Hall, she wrote and starred in the Musical, “Lushlife – The Music of Billy Strayhorn.” For the Harper’s Ferry National Park Service’s Centennial Celebration of the Niagara Movement, she wrote and starred in “The Women of Niagara.” She wrote and performed “John Brown” for the University of Utah at Park City.
Along with her husband actor/producer Dar Dixon Bijarchi, she created, produced and directed the project, “St. Francis.”
She is the youngest daughter born to Mrs. Juanita and Reverend Doctor Ralph David Abernathy, who created with his best friend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. the American Civil Rights Movement which changed the course of American History. Ms. Abernathy witnessed the integral decision making process shaped American Laws and society by the creation of the Civil Rights Bill, the Public Accommodations Act and the Voting Rights Act.
She authored the history book, “Partners To History, Martin Luther King, Ralph David Abernathy and the Civil Rights Movement,” published by Random House/Crown. The coffee table pictorial of American History which is sold out was nominated as one of the “Best Books of 2004” for Young Adults by the American Library Association. Attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote the foreword.
Ms. Abernathy is a founding member of the Board of Trustees of the New Visions Foundation which created New Roads Schools and several other schools in the Los Angeles area. As a public speaker, she has spoken for the Judicial Division of the American Bar Association, the National Association of Women Judges, Harvard Law School, Pepperdine University and Morgan State University, just to name a few. Her life is profiled in the books “Fearless Women” and “No Mountain High Enough – Secrets of Successful African American Women.”
