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Ren Woods
Age: 51
Height:
Birth Place: Portland, Oregon, USA
Born: Jan. 1st, 1958
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Ren Woods' Main TV Roles
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at
IMDB
BIOGRAPHY: A petite dynamo with a power-driven voice and sunbeam personality, soulful singer and actress Renn (or Ren) Woods began treating audiences to her extraordinary musical gifts at the age of six. The singing prodigy's first major appearance was at age 10 when she sang on NBC's "Soul Special" in 1968. Before she had even reached her teens she and two girlfriends had promptly placed themselves in the thick of things as members of the adolescent singing trio Sunday's Child. Recording briefly with Reprise Records, the group disbanded rather quickly. Renn's talent, however, was not to be denied and she ventured on as a solo, appearing alongside such top celebrities as opening for Bill Cosby at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe and, notably,Bob Hope (I) on his worldwide tours (that included Vietnam), and his TV Christmas specials.
After a couple of starter roles in the movies Sparkle (1976) and Car Wash (1976), Renn zoomed to major attention when she won the cherished role of Kunta Kinte's African friend, Fanta, in the critically-acclaimed TV mini-series "Roots" (1977) and became a regular on the one-season series "We've Got Each Other" (1977). She made the usual guest rounds on "The Jeffersons", "What's Happening!", "Hill Street Blues", "Gabriel's Fire", "Lou Grant" and "NYPD Blue", and was given a standing invitation by Johnny Carson (I) to appear on The Tonight Show. Her singing talent only added to the clamor she was receiving at the time as an actress, which was exemplified on film when she delivered the flower-child solo spot during the "Aquarius" sequence in the counterculture movie musical Hair (1979). On stage she brilliantly performed the role of as Dorothy in the first national Broadway tour of "The Wiz".
Renn lost some ground after such a firecracker start when recording contracts with ARC Electra proved disappointing. She maintained to a degree on the film front, appearing over the years in such films as The Jerk (1979), Nine to Five (1980), Penitentiary II (1982), The Brother from Another Planet (1984), Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986), Crazy World (1996) and The Blue Hour (2007). She also had a recurring role on the popular TV program "Beauty and the Beast" (1987).
To date Renn has persisted and stayed true to her own musical roots with strong roles over the years in "Big River", "Spunk" and the 2004 Los Angeles production of "Caroline, Or Change". Renn's own musical "Neither Will Be Bought, Nor Sold" has garnered her renewed attention as a budding playwright. The Kennedy Center recently chose Renn's play as one of 18 plays to be developed in the oncoming year (2007). Autobiographical one-woman concert appearances in "A Diva Like Me" and "An Empress Like Renn" have also been wildly received.
TRIVIA:
- A clip of her with 'Bob Hope (I)' (qv) during a Vietnam tour can be glimpsed in the movie _Forrest Gump (1994)_ (qv).
- When asked why she changed her name from Ren to Renn, she replied, "I walked away from the industry for personal reasons 2001-2006. I returned and asked my webmaster to purchase my domain name. He informed me it already has been purchased by an upscale furniture store in London, England!".
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