Charlaine "Charlayne" Woodard is an American playwright and actress. She made her debut in the original production of the musical Ain't Misbehavin', for which she received a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical nomination in 1978. She has played supporting roles in a number of films, include One Good Cop (1991), The Crucible (1996), Unbreakable (2000), and Glass (2019).

Woodard was one of the original Broadway cast members in the Tony Award-winning musical Ain't Misbehavin', and in 2009, starred in a one-person performance called The Night Watcher at Primary Stages in New York City. In 2011, this production came to the Kirk Douglas Theater and her performance won the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award for Solo Performance. She has written four plays, titled Pretty Fire, Neat, In Real Life, which she starred in, and Flight.

On television, Woodard played the title role in the 1978 musical film Cindy. For her performance in the 1982 drama film Hard Feelings, she received Genie Award for Best Performance by a Foreign Actress nomination. Later film credits include Crackers (1984), Twister (1989), The Meteor Man (1993), and Eye for an Eye (1995) alongside Sally Field. She played the role of Tituba in the 1996 drama film The Crucible, alongside Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder, and Elijah's mother in Unbreakable (2000), and its sequel, Glass (2019).

Woodard portrayed the recurring role of Janice in the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and of Vonda on the ABC sitcom Roseanne. From 2002 to 2011, she appeared in a recurring role on the NBC legal drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Sister Peg, a nun who looks out for the safety of prostitutes and junkies and occasionally helps the SVU detectives. Her other television credits include Chicago Hope, The Division, ER, and The Blacklist. In 2018, she was cast in a series regular role in the FX drama series Pose.

Woodard was trained at the Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago (now at DePaul University).

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