Guyana-born actress to speak at Republic Anniversary Ball
Guyana Chronicle
January 8, 2007
ACCLAIMED Guyana-born actress Carol Pounder has accepted an invitation from the Guyanese American Cultural Association of Central Florida (GACACF) to be the guest-of-honour and guest speaker at the annual Republic Anniversary Ball to be held February 24, 2007 at the historic Ballroom at Church Street, in downtown Orlando.
This is the third consecutive year that the GACACF is putting on the event to mark another anniversary of Guyana's becoming a Republic on February 23, 1970.
Ms. Pounder follows as guest-of-honour internationally renowned author Ted Braithwaite in 2005 and former West Indies cricket captain Alvin Kallicharran last year.
Actress CCH Pounder has made a name for herself in American television, where she now has a major role in the police drama The Shield. The actress has come a long way from her childhood in Guyana to the lights of Hollywood, and along the way has never given up her Guyanese roots.
"The Guyanese American community in Central Florida will undoubtedly be proud to welcome this outstanding Guyanese sister and to showcase her to the rest of the society as yet another demonstration of the heights to which Guyanese continue to rise and the contributions they make to American society," the GACACF said in a press release.
CCH Pounder - the CCH standing for Carol Christine Hilaria - is synonymous with strength, confidence and integrity.
As can be said of other similarly styled actresses such as Alfre Woodard and Cicely Tyson, most of her characters are enriched with these same positive attributes and it is a testament to this actress’ abilities that she continues on such a high plane in a nearly three-decade career, GACACF said.
Born on Christmas Day 1952 in Guyana, she was raised on a sugar-cane plantation. Her parents moved to the U.S. while she was still a young girl, but she and her sister were sent to a convent boarding school in Britain where they were introduced to art and the western classics.
Following high school graduation, she arrived in New York and studied at Ithaca College, where her acting talents were discovered.
Regional and Western classical repertory theatre followed, earning roles in such productions as 'The Mighty Gents' with Morgan Freeman at the New York Shakespeare Festival. Her preference for a warmer climate led to her move to Hollywood in the late 1970s.
She has appeared in dozens of movies, and has had continuing roles on television.
Since her debut in All That Jazz in 1979, Pounder, has had roles in LA Law, The West Wing, Law & Order and The Practice.
Pounder is part of a group called Artists for a New South Africa which had been asked by then political activist Nelson Mandela to speak out against apartheid, the system of racial separation imposed on South Africa by its former white government.
"This is an opportunity for Guyanese Americans regardless of their ethnic, political and religious background to join in showcasing one of their own who stands out in American society as among the best in her field," GACACF said.