Crystal A. Dickinson is a diverse actress who has performed in New York on Broadway and Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, The Signature Theater, Soho Rep, The Atlantic Theater and the Negro Ensemble Company. Regionally she has worked with the Contemporary American Theater Festival, Alliance, Baltimore Centerstage, 7 Stages, Georgia Shakespeare, Illinois Shakespeare, Synchronicity and Theatre-in-the-Square. Crystal was a Theater World Award Recipient for Oustanding Broadway Debut. She is a four-time AUDELCO Award nominee who was also nominated in Atlanta by the Atlanta Sunday Paper as one of the Ten Best Female Actors in Atlanta and Creative Loafing for Best Ensemble. She is also a Jenny Award winner for Best Actress, and a Suzi Bass Award winner for Best Ensemble.

  In 2007, she performed in the award winning extended run of Leslie Lee’s The First Breeze of Summer at the Signature Theatre and in 2009 she joined the award winning cast of Ruined at the Manhattan Theatre Club. She performed in the premiere production of Bruce Norris’ Pulitzer Prize winning play, Clybourne Park, which received nominations from Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk and Outer Critic’s Circle, and she went on to reprise her role in the play's Broadway transfer. Crystal’s television credits include a recurring role as Melissa on Tyler Perry’s House of Payne.

  She has been blessed to work with such talented artists as Leslie Uggams, Thomas Kail, Wendell Pierce, Rueben Santiago-Hudson, Woodie King Jr, and Bruce Norris, Pam MacKinnon, Tamara Tunie, Paul Benjamin, Leslie Lee, and Frank Wood.

  She is a proud MFA graduate of The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and a New Jersey Native. She also studied at the London Academy for Music and Dramatic Art.

  While living in Atlanta Crystal taught acting and theater history as an Assistant Professor of Drama at Spelman College. She has nearly ten years of teaching experience working at the prestigious Spelman College and the University of Illinois where she helped to coach numerous students for auditions and performances. Her students have gone on to study at the MFA programs at Yale, UCLA, UMKC and The Actor’s Studio just to name a few. She also directs theater, volunteers with the 52nd Street Project and is a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab.

  Currently, she is working as a professional actor in New York City and serves as Adjunct Professor at both Pace University and NYU Tish School of the Arts.