Demetria McKinney

An actress of the small screen, big screen, and stage, as well as a contemporary R&B singer, Demetria McKinney was born in Florida but grew up in a military household and moved frequently. After singing in church choirs, she eventually earned a vocal scholarship and studied theater and dance. Though starting in theater, she's best known for her television role as Janine on U.S. cable network TBS' sitcom <I>Tyler Perry's House of Payne from 2006-2012. During the show's run, she appeared in films including <I>Daddy's Little Girls (2007), <I>Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (2010), and <I>Church Girl (2011) and on-stage portraying Coretta Scott King in the musical <I>I Dream. She has also performed in several of Tyler Perry's stage plays. In 2012, McKinney lent vocals to R&B singer Anthony David's album Love Out Loud, and appeared on-stage in the musical <I>Dreamgirls alongside Jennifer Holliday. The following year, she joined TV One's sitcom <I>The Rickey Smiley Show, and in 2014 landed a recurring role on Lifetime's <I>Devious Maids. That year, she also released two singles, "Work with Me" and later "100," which features the Grammy-nominated rapper Da Brat. In 2015, she found herself involved in the U.S. reality show <I>Real Housewives of Atlanta, and her sultry ballad "Trade It All" landed on the Billboard adult R&B chart. She returned to the chart in early 2017 with "Easy," which reached the Top Five. Her full-length debut, Officially Yours, followed on Entertainment One that October, coinciding with the premiere of her show <I>Superstition, a Syfy drama series helmed by Mario Van Peebles. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi