• Tamara Tunie was born in 1959 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA.
• She has a net worth of over $8 million.
• She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in Musical Theatre.
• She is best known for her role in the NBC series “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”.
• She married jazz musician Gregory Generet in 1995, but separated after almost 20 years.
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Who is Tamara Tunie?
Tamara Tunie was born on 14 March 1959, in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA, of part-Native American as well as Indian ancestry. She is an actress, director and producer, best known for her role in the NBC television series “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” from 2000 to 2017, in which she portrayed medical examiner Melinda Warner.
The Net Worth of Tamara Tunie
How rich is Tamara Tunie? As of early 2020, sources inform us of a net worth that is over $8 million, earned through a successful career in acting in the entertainment industry since 1986, and has worked on films as well as TV shows and series throughout her career.
Early Life, Education, and Career Beginnings
While Tunie was born in McKeesport, she grew up in nearby Homestead, raised by her parents. There is nothing else known about her childhood, or how she came to develop an interest towards an acting career. After matriculating from high school, she enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and took up a degree in Musical Theatre.
CMU is a private university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and dates its history back to 1900.
Initially known as Carnegie Institute of Technology, the school later merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to form Carnegie Mellon University. They have numerous degree granting locations around the world, having over 13,000 students enrolled annually from 109 countries, and over 5,000 staff. Notable graduates include Emmy, Academy and Tony Award winners.
Rise to Fame
After graduation, Tamara had one of her first notable roles in the soap opera “As the World Turns”, in which she played an attorney.
Throughout the 1980s, Tamara worked on numerous films and television series. Some of the popular shows during this period include “Spenser: For Hire”, “Swift Justice”, “Tribeca”, and “SeaQuest DSV”. She also did film work, appearing in “Wall Street”, “Rising Sun” and “Bloodhounds of Broadway”. In 1994, she was cast in a recurring role in the television series “NYPD Blue”, in which she portrayed the character Lillian Fancy. The police procedural series follows the lives of detectives in a fictional police precinct in Manhattan, with episodes of the show typically following several plots which intertwine, involving the entire cast.
After her three-year run with the show, she continued with more film and television work. Her best known role came in 2000, when she was cast in “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”. As the name denotes, the crime drama series is based on a part of a fictionalized version of the New York City Police Department (NYPD). The show followed the format of the original “Law & Order” series, taking inspiration from real headlines or real crimes that received media attention. She stayed with the show for 17 years, and even after leaving, made recurring appearances over the next year, now counting close to 200 episodic appearances.
Recent Projects
Tamara continued with television work, gaining a three episode role in “Better Call Saul” – the crime drama show is a spin-off from “Breaking Bad”, set in the mid-2000s as a prequel to the events of “Breaking Bad”. The show follows the story of a con-man who becomes a small-time lawyer, eventually transforming into the criminal for hire Saul Goodman.
One of her recent projects is the show “Dietland”, cast as a main character in the series is based on the novel of the same name written by Sarai Walker, which aired for 10 episodes before being cancelled.
Shortly afterwards, she gained another main role, in “Black Earth Rising” which is a series following the prosecution of international war criminals, and is a collaboration between BBC Two and Netflix, with both airing episodes of the show. She also worked on the romantic film “Irreplaceable You”, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Michiel Huisman, and released through Netflix.
Personal Life and Social Media
For her personal life it is known that Tunie married jazz musician Gregory Generet in 1995, but in 2015, it was reported that the two had separated after almost 20 years of marriage; the two have explained their relationship growing apart over the last couple of years, leading to the decision. She lived above a funeral parlor for most of her childhood, as her parents were morticians, and both are still active at their craft. She is also a big fan of American Football, mainly following the National Football League (NFL) team, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Similar to numerous actresses, she is active online through accounts on social media, particularly on Twitter on which she has adopted the motto “Carpe diem”, which means seize the day. She uses the platform to talk about some of her day to day endeavors, though mostly redirects to her Instagram account, which showcases a bit of her life when she is away from work. She also posts a lot of behind the scenes photos, and with friends and family.
