Multi-talented, award-winning actress, playwright, director and an advocate for inclusion, Christine Toy Johnson(FX's "The Americans") recently returned to the stage for the national tour of the award-winning musical COME FROM AWAY. Starring as 'Diane,' the highly-acclaimed show also stars Kevin Carolan (Newsies) and James Earl Jones II and recently launched their Northern American tour in Seattle at the 5th Avenue Theatre in October 2018. The musical tells the true story of 7,000 stranded passengers and the small town in Newfoundland that welcomed them. The show began performances on Broadway in February 2017, and officially opened to critical acclaim on March 12th at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in NYC. The musical will be touring in Seattle, Salt Lake City, Denver, Los Angeles and more.
On the small screen, Christine currently can be seen in the sophomore season of Netflix's hit Marvel series "Iron Fist" in which she plays the role of "Sherry Yang," the wife of Hai-Qing Yang, leader of Yangsi Gonshi - also known as the Hatchets. As the Hatchets went up against the Hand in season one, Danny (Finn Jones) and Hai-Qing are begrudging allies of sorts. However, when he's taken out of Davos (Sacha Dhawan), Sherry becomes more than just a "mob wife," stepping up to take his place and teams up with Danny and Colleen (Jessica Henwick) for protection, continuing the alliance in the face of a looming gang was. Season 2 is currently available to view on Netflix.
In addition to her exciting new role on "Iron Fist," Johnson also appears on Lifetime's newdrama series "You" which premiered on Sunday, September 9th. Based on Caroline Kepnes' follow-up novel to Hidden Bodies,the series follows Joe Golberg (Penn Badgley), a man willing to cross any line in pursuit of true love. The new season will see him venture into even riskier, bolder territory as his quest takes him across the country from New York to Los Angeles and will now have to face the darkest parts of his past as he tries to make a future for himself and the woman he loves.
Born and raised in the suburbs of New York City, Johnson became a performer at an early age modeling for national campaigns prior to getting her Equity card the summer she graduated from high school when she played the role of "Liat" in a production of South Pacific. She attended the University of Southern California School of Music for Vocal Performance and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and much later from the Screenwriting Program at NYU. She made her New York debut in the Autumn following her college graduation as the leading lady of the Off-Broadway musical Oh, Johnny. This led her to have a varied and extensive stage career on and off-Broadway and in regional theaters across the US, some of which included The Music Man, Grease!, Flower Drum Song, Pacific Overtures, Falsettoland, Bombay Dreams. Johnson is also a playwright and writer and has had her screenplay "Jumping the Third Rail" win a Meryl Streep/Iris Writers Lab fellowship in 2016 and prior to that, her written work was included in the Library of Congress Asian Pacific American Performing Arts Collection in 2010. On the small screen, Johnson is highly recognized for her recurring role on "The Americans" (as 'Linh Gaad') and on "Law and Order: SVU" ('as 'Dr. Celia Lee'), the pediatrician to Olivia Benson's (Mariska Hargitay) son, Noah. She's also had significant guest roles on "30 Rock," "Bull," "Mr. Robot," "Madam Secretary, "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," "Ugly Betty," among many others.
As an avid anti-discrimination advocate and performer, Johnson has been breaking the color barrier in non-traditionally cast roles for over 30 years. Christine is a member of the elected leaderships of both Actors' Equity Association and the Dramatists Guild of America and serves as National Chair of both associations' Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committees. She is a founding member of AAPAC (Asian American Performers Action Coalition) and served on the Board of the Tony honored Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts for over fifteen years.