Tenaya Cleveland is an American-born actress and producer, hailing from Hawaii and raised in California. Her journey in the entertainment industry has taken her to various locations, including Los Angeles, Atlanta, and San Francisco.
As a child, she was part of the Malcolm X Jazz Chorus, led by pianist Dick Whittington, where she had the opportunity to perform alongside renowned musicians such as Bobby Hutcherson, Mary Stallings, and Richie Cole. At the tender age of 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 series Six Feet Under in 2001. This led to an opportunity to audition for and land a speaking role in a season 3 episode, directed by Kathy Bates. Despite being initially told that she was passed over for a larger role due to another director's bias towards casting background actors, she quit background acting and committed herself to only booking speaking roles.
Cleveland then shifted her focus to creating roles for herself by producing independent films. Her passion for the environment and independent filmmaking led her to work behind the scenes on Josh Tickell's multi-award-winning documentary Fuel, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008.
In between shooting scenes for The 12 Lives of Sissy Carlyle in 2017, she appeared in small roles on Drop Dead Diva in 2009 and Necessary Roughness in 2011. Ms. Cleveland was then cast by Tyler Perry in multiple episodes of The Haves and the Have Nots in 2013. Her interaction with the show's devoted fans garnered her a small but loyal following, who lovingly dubbed her "Sleeping Beauty" in reaction to a scene where 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 in 2018, has appeared on The Haunting of Hill House in 2018, MacGyver in 2016, and The Vampire Diaries in 2009, and continues to pursue her acting and producing career from her Atlanta home base. She has also authored articles on acting and independent filmmaking and has served on panels for various film festivals, including the Atlanta Film Festival, where she has been a regular attendee since 2012.
