Seret Scott (; born September 1, 1949) is an American actress, director, and playwright, best known for her roles in the films Losing Ground and Pretty Baby, as well as guest appearances on the televisions shows The Equalizer, Miami Vice, and Cosby. She is also known for her theatrical roles on Broadway and the many plays she has directed on national and regional stages.

Seret Scott directed The Old Settler by John Henry Redwood at The Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., in 1997.

Early life Scott was born on September 1, 1949, in Washington D.C. She has referred to herself as “a child of the 60's,” as her youth in D.C. was marked by segregation and civil rights turmoil. She began her career as an actress in 1969 when she left New York University, where she was studying, to join the Free Southern Theater, a community theater group allied with the civil rights movement that sought to introduce free, socially incisive theater for African Americans in the South.

Career Stage When she returned to New York City, Scott continued to participate in activist theatre, including anti-Vietnam performances and performances for inmates at Rikers and Sing Sing prisons. She also began her off-Broadway career, appearing in the 1970 play Slave Ship at Theatre-in-the-Church in New York City. In 1974, Scott appeared on Broadway as Sue Belle in Ray Aranha's play My Sister, My Sister, for which she received a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance.

Following her Broadway success, Scott went on to work as an actress for decades in New York City and around the country, including another appearance on Broadway in Ntozake Shange's 1976 play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf.

In 1989, Scott made her directorial debut with Some Sweet Day, written by Nancy Fales Garrett, which was reviewed favorably in the New York Times. After this success, Scott transitioned full time into a career as a director and directed scores of plays off-Broadway and in regional theater productions, including at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Chicago's Court Theatre.

Film Scott's first screen role was as “Flora” in Pretty Baby, a 1978 drama directed by Louis Malle, starring Brooke Shields, Keith Carradine, and Susan Sarandon.

Scott's most seminal role was as “Sara,” a professor of French philosophy navigating complicated relationships with her artist husband, her work, and other artists in the 1982 film Losing Ground, written and directed by Kathleen Collins. The film was one of the first feature films ever directed by an African American woman. Although it won first prize at the Figueroa International Film Festival in Portugal, Losing Ground did not receive widespread attention until its rediscovery decades later.

In 2015, New York Times film critic A.O. Scott called Losing Ground “a puzzle and a marvel,” and wrote that it “casts a highly individual spell.” In 2019, The New Yorker film critic Richard Brody wrote that the film “reveals Collins to be one of the most accomplished and original filmmakers of her time.” Scott's role in the film followed her starring role in another of Collins’ productions, the play The Brothers, at the American Place Theater in New York City in April 1982.

Scott went on to appear in various television series throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including Miami Vice and Cosby while continuing her career as a stage actress, director and playwright.

Filmography

Theatre actress Year Title Role Theater 1970 Slave Ship, LeRoi Jones playwright Noliwe Theatre-in-the-Church, New York City 1974 My Sister, My Sister, Ray Aranha playwright Sue Belle Little Theatre, New York City 1976 For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf, Ntozake Shange playwright Understudy Booth Theatre, New York City 1981 Weep Not for Me, Gus Edwards playwright Crissie Adams Theater Four, New York City 1981 Meetings, Mustapha Matura playwright Elsa Marymount Manhattan, New York City 1982 Brothers, Kathleen Collins playwright Caroline Edwards American Place Theatre, New York City 1983 Puppetplay, Pearl Cleage playwright Woman One Theater Four, New York City 1985 Eyes of the American, Samm-Art Williams playwright Roberta Ottley/Velda Theater Four, New York City 1988 A Burning Beach, Eduardo Machado playwright Maria American Place Theatre, New York City 1996 The Alexander Plays...Suzanne in Stages , Adrienne Kennedy playwright unnamed character Joseph Papp Public Theater/ Susan Stein Shiva Theater, New York City

Films and television actress + Seret Scott film and television credits Year Title Role Notes 1978 Pretty Baby Flora Film 1982 Losing Ground Sara Rogers Film. Written and directed by Kathleen Collins. Also starred Bill Gunn, Duane Jones. 1987 Miami Vice Esther Nevin 1 episode 1988 The Equalizer Elena Rodriguez Episode: "Sea of Fire" 1991 The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd Louise 1 episode 1991 Mathnet Prosecutor 1 episode 1991 Murder in Mind Sarah Bendix 1 episode 1993 Tribeca Plain-clothed Cop 1 episode 2000 Cosby untitled role 1 episode

Playwright Year Title Theater 2008 Second Line ATLAS – Lab Theatre II, Washington, D.C.

Theatre director Year Title Theater 1989 Some Sweet Day Long Wharf Theater, New York City 1994 Zooman and the Sign McGinn-Cazale Theatre, New York City 1999 Mujeres Y Hombres New Victory Theatre, New York City 2005 Birdie BlueSecond Stage Theatre, New York City 2005 Starving Woolly Mammoth, Washington, D.C. 2005 The Piano Lesson Arena Stage, Washington, D.C. 2006 Yohen West End Theatre, New York City 2011 Richard III Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, Oregon 2013 A Raisin in the Sun The Don and Ann Brown Theatre, West Palm Beach, Florida 2014 Native Son (World Premiere) Court Theatre, Chicago, Illinois 2015 Autumn (World Premiere) Crossroads Theatre, New Brunswick, New Jersey 2019 For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf Court Theatre, Chicago, Illinois

Personal life Scott has been a resident of Teaneck, New Jersey.Baranauckas, Carla. "From Onstage to Offstage", The New York Times, September 30, 2006. Accessed September 13, 2022. "Ms. Scott, who is married and has a grown son, lives in Teaneck."

References

External links

Theatre History Episode # 32 (podcast), Seret Scott Looks Back on the Free Southern Theater, 22 May 2017