Get the 411 on Tamberla Perry, one of the stars of NBC’s Brilliant Minds.
Brilliant Minds stars Zachary Quinto (aka, the Star Trek Kelvin Timeline’s Mr. Spock) as Dr. Oliver Wolf, a top-notch neurologist who also happens to have prosopagnosia, colloquially known as face-blindness. This means his brain is unable to recognize or interpret facial features.
Tamberla Perry co-stars in Brilliant Minds as Dr. Carol Pierce, Bronx General Hospital’s Chair of Psychiatry.
5 Facts About Brilliant Minds’ Tamberla Perry
Tamberla Perry Graduated from the University of Rochester
According to Citizen Weekly, Tamberla Perry is an alumna of the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York.
Reportedly, Perry had plans to go into the medical field and was employed in the corporate world before, one day, becoming inspired to begin acting as a profession, thanks to an internet search.
The University of Rochester, located upstate, was founded in 1850 and has about 12,000 students. The college specializes in the disciplines of science and engineering.
Tamberla Used To Perform on Stage in Chicago
Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, 41-year-old Tamberla Perry (born September 6, 1981) would often take to the stage at local theaters alongside her husband Kevin Douglas.
Eventually, however, the couple moved to Los Angeles, as Douglas works as a screenwriter and LA typically has far more opportunities for those in that field.
Kevin Douglas expressed his great affection for the theater scene in Chicago to Citizen Weekly:
“We love Chicago, we love Chicago theater, and know that it’s home, we can always go home.”
Perry spoke to Chicagoist in 2013 about her then-current role on-stage as the lead and title character in By the Way, Meet Vera Stark. She discussed her similarities with regard to those of her character in the play:
“Vera and I have a lot of similarities. She is a strong black woman who had to hustle in 1933, and I am hustling today in 2013. We both have a passion for entertainment and will stop at nothing to do what we love. Sometimes that means compromising one’s beliefs.”
The actress also remarked on her experience with Chicago theater to Canvas Rebel, which she credited with helping to get her to where she is today:
“We worked hard in Chicago. It is in huge part to the Chicago Theatre Scene that we are where we are professionally, today. Theatre really shaped us as artists and creatives and our theatre homes gave us the space to grow.”
Tamberla Previously Starred in They Cloned Tyrone and Destiny 2
Perry, who has a healthy amount of acting credits to her name, would perhaps be best known as Biddy in the 2023 Netflix movie They Cloned Tyrone. Most recently, she also appeared in Hulu’s murder mystery show Death and Other Details.
Other notable parts played by Tamberla Perry were in the short-lived, Kelsey Grammer-led series Boss and voicing Safiyah in the Witch Queen expansion for Destiny 2, a first-person shooter video game.
Tamberla’s Casting in Brilliant Minds Was a Whirlwind Audition Process
During an interview with ScreenRant, Perry went into great detail on how she landed the role of Carol Pierce on Brilliant Minds. She explained that upon first reading the script for the series, she became dead-set on getting cast. As she put it, “I knew that I had to have it:”
“I knew from the moment I read this script, I knew that I had to have it. I don't covet roles. As actors, we want to work, and the things that we audition for, most of the time, we want to book, but 98% of our job is rejection. We get told no most of the time. You shouldn't put a whole lot into these things because otherwise you'll get your feelings hurt every single day of the week. But when I read this, I said, "I've got to get this one. I've got to get it." And I did.”
Perry gave the entire audition process “[her] all” while also noting that Brilliant Minds is a “different show” which she found quite appealing:
“I taped that audition. I gave it my all, and when I read the script, it was different. This was a different show. This was unlike any of the shows that I could think of on television at the time, or even previously. A show dealing with mental health, especially at a time where it's so topical, is such a hot topic. It really spoke to me. I was excited to get every single call that said, "You made it to the next round." And I did wonder when these rounds were going to end, but I was there for every step of the way.”
Tamberla Made a Webseries with Her Husband
Recently, Tamberla Perry and her husband Kevin Douglas created and starred in a webseries called The Tam and Kevin Show. The series took the form of comical, slice-of-life sketches about the pair’s lives.
The Tam and Kevin Show ran for one season in 2022 and all episodes are available on the YouTube channel for Chicago’s legendary comedy group, The Second City.
How To Follow Tamberla Perry Online
Perry has an account on Instagram at the handle @tamberlaperry. She is also on X (formerly Twitter) @tamberla and TikTok @tamberlaperry.
Brilliant Minds airs on NBC, on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET. The next episode arrives on Monday, October 7.
