Deborah Ann “Debbi” Morgan[note 1] is an American film and television actress. Morgan has appeared in a number of film and TV productions, and may be best known for the role of Angie Baxter–Hubbard on the ABC soap opera All My Children.

Morgan was the first African American to win the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance as Angie in 1989. She is also known for her role as the Seer in the fourth and fifth seasons of Charmed. In film, her performance as Mozelle Batiste-Delacroix in Eve’s Bayou (1997) earned critical acclaim and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. More recently she played a recurring role as Estelle Green in the starz crime drama series Power and its spinoff Power Book II: Ghost from 2014 to 2021, and also co-starred in the Fox drama series Our Kind of People.

Early life

Morgan was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 in Dunn, North Carolina,[citation needed] the daughter of Lora, a teacher, and George Morgan Jr., a butcher. She has a younger sister, Terry. The family relocated to the Bronx when Morgan was still a 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥. In a 1997 interview with People, Morgan revealed that her father was an abusive alcoholic. While he never physically harmed his daughters, Morgan recalled her mother running from her father often. Her father died of leukemia in 1975. Morgan graduated from Aquinas High School.

Career

Morgan’s earliest film role was in the movie Monkey Hustle in 1976. She played the role of Vi. Morgan’s earliest recurring role was on What’s Happening!! from 1976 to 1977 as Diane Harris, and also appeared on Good Times. In 1979, she received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Alex Haley’s great-aunt Elizabeth Harvey on the 1979 miniseries Roots: The Next Generations, and her guest-starring role as Curtis Jackson’s ex-girlfriend turned prostitute on The White Shadow. Her most notable role was Angie Baxter Hubbard on the soap opera All My Children, a role she originally played from January 1982 to July 1990. Her portrayal of Angie struck a chord with many Black viewers across America. Angie and her love interest, Jesse Hubbard (Darnell Williams), became the first African-American “supercouple” on daytime soap operas. In 1989, Morgan won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (which she shares with Santa Barbara actress Nancy Lee Grahn). She and Williams also co-hosted a music video show titled New York Hot Tracks in the mid-1980s.[citation needed]

After leaving All My Children, Morgan played the role of Chantal Marshall on the NBC soap opera, Generations (replacing actress Sharon Brown) and remained with the show until it ended. She then reprised her role as Angie Hubbard on ABC’s Loving in 1993. In 1995, she brought the same character to The City (a retooled version of Loving), making Morgan one of the few performers to portray the same character on three different soap operas. From 1997 to 1998, she also played Dr. Ellen Burgess on Port Charles. In the 1980s and 1990s, Morgan became a de facto symbol for the possibilities for black women as all of her soap opera roles involved her playing a successful doctor.

Morgan earned acclaim from movie critics for her portrayal of clairvoyant Mozelle Batiste Delacroix in director Kasi Lemmons’ drama film Eve’s Bayou (1997).  For her portrayal, she won a Chicago Film Critics Association Award and an Independent Spirit Award and was nominated for an Image Award. She later left soap operas and began her film career with roles in She’s All That (1999), The Hurricane (1999), Love & Basketball (2000), Woman Thou Art Loosed (2004), Coach Carter (2005), Relative Strangers (2006), and Color of the Cross (2006). On television, she had roles in The Practice, Strong Medicine, Boston Public, Providence, and Soul Food.

From 2002 to 2003, Morgan played lead character Lora Gibson, opposite Lea Thompson, on the Lifetime drama series For the People. She also played the role of the Seer in the fourth and fifth seasons of Charmed. Morgan, along with costar Darnell Williams, returned to All My Children in January 2008, 10 years after leaving daytime television. In May 2009 and 2011, she was nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.[10] In 2011, ABC cancelled All My Children, and Morgan joined the cast of The Young and the Restless as Yolanda “Harmony” Hamilton[11][12] on October 7, 2011, exactly two weeks after All My Children aired its final television episode on September 23, 2011. In 2013, Morgan appeared in the Web-based reboot of All My Children, reprising her role of Angie Hubbard.  The series premiered on April 29, 2013, and was cancelled after a single season. In November 2013, after All My Children was cancelled, Morgan was cast in Starz drama series, Power, opposite Omari Hardwick and Naturi Naughton.  In 2015, she co-starred alongside Richard Lawson and Vivica A. Fox in two TV One holiday movies: Royal Family Thanksgiving and Royal Family Christmas. Morgan later played Toni Braxton’s mother in the Lifetime biopic Toni Braxton: Unbreak My Heart.

In 2017, Morgan appeared in the Marvel miniseries The Defenders playing Delores. The following year, she had a recurring role in the BET drama series The Quad. In 2019, she appeared in the Netflix film Sextuplets starring Marlon Wayans. She starred with Kelly Rowland in the Lifetime movie Merry Liddle Christmas and its sequels. In 2021, she was cast in the Lee Daniels prime time soap opera, Our Kind of People opposite Yaya DaCosta. In 2023 she portrayed Keyshia Cole’s mother in the Lifetime biopic Keyshia Cole: This is My Story. Jasmine Blu from TVfanatic wrote in her review: “Debbi Morgan, though, has always been a force, a legend who deserves every last bit of her flowers right here and now. To say she stole this film would be the understatement of the century. She was magnificent. She did such a remarkable job playing Frankie; there were moments it literally gave me chills. It’s almost eerie how well Morgan embodied the late mother and grandmother.” Morgan later was cast in the drama film Divorce in the Black written and directed by Tyler Perry.

Personal life

Morgan has been married four times and has no 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren. Her first marriage was to Charles Weldon from 1980 until 1984. In 1989, Morgan married actor Charles S. Dutton, divorcing in 1994. From 1997 until 2000, Morgan was married to photographer Donn Thompson. Morgan has been married to Jeffrey Winston since June 2009.