Sonja Sohn

Sonja Sohn (Sonja Denise Plack[1], born Sonja Williams; May 9, 1964[2]) is an American actress and director best known for her roles as Detective Kima Greggs on the HBO drama The Wire and Detective Samantha Baker on the ABC series Body of Proof. She is also known for having starred in the independent film Slam, which she co-wrote. Her role on The Wire led to her work as the leader of a Baltimore community initiative called ReWired for Change.[3]

This is a Korean name; the family name is Sohn.

Sonja Sohn
Sohn at Harvard Law School in April 2011.
Born	Sonja Williams (1964-05-09) May 9, 1964 Fort Benning, Georgia, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1996–present
Spouse(s)	Adam Plack
Children	2

Sonja Sohn
Hangul	손자 손
Revised Romanization	Sonja Son
McCune–Reischauer	Sonja Son

Early life

Sohn was born Sonja Williams in Fort Benning, Georgia. Her mother was Korean and her father was Black. Her parents met when her father was stationed in South Korea after the Korean War.[4] She attended and graduated from Warwick High School in Newport News.[5]

Career

Sohn (left) with The Wire co-stars, Jamie Hector (middle) and Michael K. Williams

Before she was an actress, Sohn was a slam poet. While performing her work on stage, she was spotted by Marc Levin who offered her a role in his film Slam. She also wrote lyrics and co-wrote the script for the film. It went on to win the Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Film at the Sundance Film Festival. After debuting in Slam, Sohn appeared in minor roles in films such as Shaft and Bringing Out the Dead. She also starred in independent films Perfume, G and The Killing Zone. Through the five seasons of the HBO series The Wire, she held a starring role as Detective Kima Greggs.[6] She struggled during the first season of The Wire and considered quitting as she had trouble recalling her lines. She has also guest starred on many episodes of Cold Case as "Toni Halstead". She won the supporting television actress award at the 2008 Asian Excellence Awards for her character on The Wire.

She had a supporting role in the Hollywood film Step Up 2: The Streets. In 2008-09, she was a guest star in the ABC series Brothers & Sisters, and in 2010 she appeared in an episode of CBS series The Good Wife. In 2011, she was a guest star on the show Bar Karma.[7] She played Detective Samantha Baker in the first two seasons of the medical drama television series Body of Proof with Dana Delany and Jeri Ryan, which premiered on ABC on March 29, 2011.[8]

On May 30, 2014, it was announced that Sohn would be joining season 2 of The Originals, in a recurring role as the witch Lenore a.k.a. Esther Mikaelson.[9]

Sohn made her directorial debut with the 2017 HBO documentary Baltimore Rising about the 2015 Baltimore protests and community organizing that arose in response to police violence.[10]

Activism

Previously involved in political activism (she campaigned in North Carolina in support of Barack Obama's 2008 presidential bid), Sohn took a break from acting in 2009 to concentrate on social issues. She is the founder and CEO of the Baltimore-based reWIRED for Change, an outreach program intended to communicate with (and ultimately rehabilitate) at-risk youth involved in criminal activity.[11] The program is run out of the University of Maryland School of Social Work and uses episodes of The Wire as a teaching tool, encouraging the participants to examine and query their lives and past actions.[12] Other actors and writers involved with The Wire serve as board members.[13] In 2011, she was presented with the Woman of the Year award from the Harvard Black Men's Forum.[14]

Personal life

In 2003, Sohn married didgeridoo player Adam Plack. She has two daughters born 1986 and 1990.[15] As of 2019 Sohn and Plack are divorced.[16] On July 21, 2019, Sohn was arrested in North Carolina and charged with felony possession of cocaine. [17]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Work	June
1998	Slam	Lauren Bell	Also screenwriter
1999	Getting to Know You	Lynn
1999	Bringing Out the Dead	Kanita
2000	Shaft	Alice
2001	Perfume	Dandy
2002	G	Shelly
2003	The Killing Zone	Jennifer
2008	Step Up 2: The Streets	Sarah
2012	The Wire: The Musical	Detective Shakima 'Kima' Greggs	Short
2015	The Missing Girl	Franny
2017	Domain	Atlanta
2019	High Flying Bird	Myra

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Bronx County	N/A	Television film
2002–08	The Wire	Detective Shakima 'Kima' Greggs	Series regular, 56 episodes
2006–07	Cold Case	Toni Halstead	Recurring role, 5 episodes
2008–09	Brothers & Sisters	Trish Evans	Recurring role, 4 episodes
2010–13	The Good Wife	Sonya Rucker	2 episodes
2011	Bar Karma	Lucy Borden	Episode: "An Open Mind"
2011–12	Body of Proof	Samantha Baker	Series regular, 29 episodes
2012	Drop Dead Diva	Judge Vivian Holston	Episode: "Jane's Getting Married"
2012	Burn Notice	Agent Olivia Riley	Recurring role, 5 episodes
2013	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Lisa Carter	Episode: "American Tragedy"
2014–15	The Originals	Lenore / Esther	Recurring role, 8 episodes
2015	Last Week Tonight with John Oliver	Police Officer	Episode: "Public Defenders"
2016	Luke Cage	Captain Betty Audrey	Recurring role, 3 episodes
2016	Shut Eye	Gabriella	5 episodes
2017	Baltimore Rising		Director
2018	The Chi	Laverne Johnson	9 episodes
2019	Star Trek: Discovery	Dr. Gabrielle Burnham	2 episodes

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Film or series	Result
1998	Gotham Awards	Breakthrough Actor	Slam	Won
1998	Sundance Film Festival	Grand Jury Prize	Slam	Won
1998	Independent Spirit Awards	Best Debut Performance	Slam	Nominated
2005	Image Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series	The Wire	Nominated
2008	Asian Excellence Awards	Outstanding Television Actress	The Wire	Won
2009	Image Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series	The Wire	Nominated

References

1. https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/sonja-sohn-cocaine-possession-1203275294/
2. Holtzclaw, Mike (October 25, 1999). "Local Actress Now Working With Big Stars". Daily Press. Retrieved April 17, 2012.
3. "After 'The Wire', Sonja Sohn couldn’t leave Baltimore’s troubled streets behind" Archived 2010-04-10 at the Wayback Machine Article, ReWired for Change web site
4. Gross, Terry (March 15, 2012). "Sonja Sohn: Changing Baltimore Long After 'The Wire'". Fresh Air. NPR. Retrieved April 17, 2012.
5. Life Servers Sohn Well; Actress Graduated from Newport News School, Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 7, 1998, B4, by Mike Holtzclaw
6. "Character profile - Detective Shakima "Kima" Greggs". HBO. 2004. Retrieved 2006-07-22.
7. Bargiel, Nina (February 22, 2011). "Episode 103: "An Open Mind" with Sonja Sohn!". Current TV. Archived from the original on March 12, 2011. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
8. "ABC Adds "Body of Proof", "Off the Map" to Roster". The Futon Critic. May 14, 2010. Retrieved May 18, 2010.
9. Tierney Bricker (May 30, 2014). "The Originals Casts The Wire Star in Witchy Season 2 Role". E!. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
10. Cohen, Sandy (July 28, 2017). "'Baltimore Rising' explores life after Freddie Gray". The Detroit News. Associated Press.
11. Phil Zabriskie, "After 'The Wire' ended, actress Sonja Sohn couldn't leave Baltimore's troubled streets behind", Washington Post, January 27, 2012.
12. Sonja Sohn's Road to Redemption Archived 2009-09-07 at the Wayback Machine - story on Sohn's community activism with reWIRED for Change in B (Baltimore online newspaper), accessed January 1, 2010
13. Members page reWIRED for Change, accessed January 1, 2010
14. "Sohn honored". Boston Globe. March 29, 2011. p. G14. "The Wire" actress Sonja Sohn receives the Woman of the Year award at the Harvard Black Men's Forum 17th Annual Celebration of Black Women
15. Brown, Sloane (November 5, 2006). "A NIGHT FOR GUYS TO BE BAD FOR GOOD". Baltimore Sun. p. 2N. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
16. https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article232961197.html
17. "Actress charged with drug possession in North Carolina". Associated Press. July 22, 2019. Retrieved June 24, 2020.

External links

• Sonja Sohn on IMDb
• reWIRED for Change homepage, rewiredforchange.org; accessed December 8, 2014.
• ReWired and Reading Liverpool Philharmonic, liverpoolphil.com; accessed December 8, 2014.
• ReWired and Reading The Reader Organisation, thereaderonline.co.uk; accessed December 8, 2014.
• Appearances on C-SPAN
  • C-SPAN Q&A interview with Sohn, c-span.org; accessed December 8, 2014.