Milauna Jemai Jackson is an American actress. She is best known for her role as

DEA The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic en ...

Special Agent Kim Martinez in the British-American action television series '' Strike Back'' seasons four & five.

Early life

A native of Chicago, Milauna Jemai Jackson was raised on the South Side by her single mother. To study in a safe environment, she lived part-time with her mother and partially with her grandparents. Before enrolling in the performing arts program at Marie Sklodowska Curie Metropolitan High School, she acted in church programs and community theater at a young age. She had her mother Linda and Miss Lillian Monkus (deceased), whom she met in high school, as female role models. Her first television role was in 2000 in the

court show A court show (also known as a judge show, legal/courtroom program, courtroom series, or judicial show) is a broadcast programming subgenre of either legal dramas or reality legal programming. Court shows present content mainly in the form of lega ...

'' Arrest & Trial'' (episode "Nightstalker") where she played herself. After high school, Jackson attended several colleges;

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

and

Cal State Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...

, before enrolling at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois ...

(UIC) where she began to appear in commercials, a Twista video, and industrial films.

Career

In 2002, she moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

to further her career aspirations. In 2012, she enrolled in

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

and completed her education. During her orientation day she learned that director

Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced more than 35 films since 1983. He made his directorial debut ...

cast her for an HBO pilot ''Da Brick'', "and that was the last part of my academic year." In 2004, two years later, Milauna Jackson landed a role in the TV series ''

Cold Case A cold case is a crime, or a suspected crime, that has not yet been fully resolved and is not the subject of a current criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, new or r ...

'' (episode "Volunteers"). She also appeared in several TV movies, other TV series and films. She was also a regular member of '' Squad 85'', an American comedy series created by Gregory Bonsignore. It was aired on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

YOMYOMF YOMYOMF, whose name is an acronym for "You Offend ME, You Offend My FAMILY," is a YouTube channel aggregating talent from various performers. Even though the YOMYOMF Network is an Asian American pop culture channel, the channel is intended to sho ...

channel and premiered on November 13, 2012. A few weeks after her audition for the role of DEA SA Kim Martinez on '' Strike Back'', Milauna Jackson found herself in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

for the filming of the show. It was in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

that the

military advisor Military advisors, or combat advisors, advise on military matters. Some are soldiers sent to foreign countries to aid such countries with their military training, organization, and other various military tasks. The Foreign powers or organizations ...

for the show, Paul Hornsby, put her skills and knowledge in hand-to-hand combat, weapons work and other military techniques to the test. She also has a recurring role on NBC's ''Aquarius'' starring

David Duchovny David William Duchovny ( ; born ) is an American actor, writer, producer, director, novelist, and singer-songwriter. He is known for portraying FBI agent Fox Mulder on the television series ''The X-Files'' (1993–2002, 2016-2018) and as writ ...

, as the wife of David's detective partner, Grey Damon. From 2016 to 2017, she had a recurring role as A.D.A. Rene Atwood in the ABC legal thriller ''

How to Get Away with Murder ''How to Get Away with Murder'' is an American legal thriller television series that premiered on ABC on September 25, 2014, and concluded on May 14, 2020. The series was created by Peter Nowalk, and produced by Shonda Rhimes and ABC Studios ...

''.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Milauna Actresses from Chicago Living people American film actresses American television actresses 21st-century American actresses University of Illinois Chicago 1976 births