Debbi Morgan - Career

Career

Morgan's earliest film role was in the movie Mandingo in 1975. She played the role of Dite. 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 famous 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 the daytime serials. 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.

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 1991. 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 played Dr. Ellen Burgess on Port Charles. In the early 2000s, she played lead character Lora Gibson, opposite Lea Thompson, on the Lifetime series For the People. She also played the role of The Seer in the fourth and fifth seasons of Charmed.

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. In the late 1990s, she garnered much acclaim from movie critics for her portrayal of clairvoyant Mozelle Batiste Delacroix in director Kasi Lemmons' Eve's Bayou. For her portrayal, she won a Chicago Film Critics Association Award and an Independent Spirit Award and was nominated for an Image Award.

Morgan, along with Darnell Williams, returned to All My Children in January 2008. Both actors have signed long term contracts. In May 2009 and 2011, she was nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

Also in 2011, Morgan signed a contract to appear on The Young and the Restless after All My Children concludes its run on ABC.

On September 14, 2012, Morgan was let go from her role as Harmony Hamilton on the CBS Soap, The Young and the Restless.