Shareeka Epps

Shareeka Epps is an American actress who was discovered in junior high school and first starred in the short film Gowanus, Brooklyn as Drey, a high school student. That short won the Short Filmmaking Award at Sundance in 2004 and led to Half Nelson (2006), in which she reprised the role opposite Ryan Gosling. For Half Nelson she won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, the Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Actor, and honors from the Boston Society of Film Critics and Women Film Critics Circle, and received nominations from several critics groups and two Black Reel Awards. She later appeared in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem and American Milkshake, made her first television appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and provided spoken word vocals on Dead Man's Bones' debut album.