Nilaja Sun

Nilaja Sun (born Nilaja Sun Gordon) is an actress, playwright, and a teaching artist from the Lower East Side in New York City. Sun has taught theatre in New York City public schools since 1998 and is best known for her award-winning one-person play, No Child...

Career

Sun has been featured in TV shows and movies, including The Bourne Legacy (2012), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2004–2006), 30 Rock (2008–2012) and Madam Secretary (2014 - 2019)

Her most famous work, No Child..., follows the story of Miss Sun, a visiting teacher in a 10th grade classroom at Malcolm X High School in the Bronx. The one-person play includes 16 characters, a mixture of students, teachers, and administration. The play was created by Sun based on her eight-year experience with arts education in New York City schools, including at Martin Luther King Jr. High School. Through the play, Sun wants to shows how the school system is breaking and ultimately hopes to capture the life and love that exists in schools. Sun also teaches writing workshops at New York City's Rikers Island jail complex.

Awards and honors Sun's work has garnered critical acclaim and a total of 21 awards, including the Obie Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, and the soloNOVA Award for Artist of the Year by terraNOVA Collective. Sun's play “No Child...” was also named the Best One-Person Show at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen and received two Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Solo Performance and for Outstanding New American Play.

Other awards include:

Princess Grace Award Theatre World Award Helen Hayes Award two NAACP Theatre Awards

Filmography Year Title Role 2004/2006 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Nurse / Triage Nurse 2008/2012 30 Rock Irene 2009/I The International Detective Gloria Hubbard 2010 Rubicon Agent Madero 2010 Louie Woman on Phone 2010 Knight and Day Allison 2011 Unforgettable Ivory 2012 Nature Calls Moses Mother 2012 The Bourne Legacy Blue Lab Doctor 2013 HairBrained Skidmore Moderator 2014 Irreversible Makeup Artist 2014–2016 Madam Secretary Juliet 2015 Nurse Jackie Tress 2015 The Good Wife Divya Feldman 2016 Knock Knock Veronica Young