An only child born July 12, 1958, in London, England to Jamaican parents, Tonya Williams emigrated to Canada when she was 12 years old. She started ballet at three years old, piano at five, won Miss Junior Personality when she was 14 years old in 1973, and was crowned Oshawa’s Miss Fiesta, winner of the Boogie dance contest, and Miss Black Ontario all between 1976 and 1977. She burst onto our screens in 1976 with a slew of commercials including the national Wear a Moustache Milk campaign which put her in the national spotlight. She was then accepted into the Ryerson (now Toronto Metropolitan University) Drama Program. By 1985 she was one of the CTV stars of the sitcom Check it Out, and by 1990 she was in Hollywood starring on The Young and The Restless as Dr. Olivia Winters, a role she played for 19 years.
Tonya has been named one of the 100 Most Influential Black Canadians for three years in a row (2022-2024), the 2024 Canadian Screen Awards Changemaker Award Recipient, the 2023 Visionary Award Recipient at the Legacy Awards, and Playback’s 2021 Changemaker of the Year. She is an award-winning actress and producer who has worked in the industry for the last 50 years. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of the Reelworld Screen Institute (which includes Reelworld Film Festival+Summit and Access Reelworld) and the Reelworld Foundation. Tonya founded Reelworld in 2000 to address the lack of opportunities, access, and inclusion in Canada for Black, Indigenous, Asian and People of Colour in the screen industries.
Tonya currently sits on several boards including the Canadian Artists Network, and is a co-founder and served as a board member of the Black Screen Office for its first two years. She also sits on the Telefilm Diversity & Inclusion Group, the Telefilm Authentic Storytelling sub-committee, the Canadian Media Fund Racialized Advisory Group, the Ontario Creates Advisory Industry Committee, the Canadian Creative Industries Coalitions Group and the Canadian Racial Screen Leaders Collective.
A citizen of Canada, the UK, and the US, Tonya has won numerous awards including two NAACP Image Awards, an ACTRA Award of Excellence, a WIFT-T Crystal Award, and a Harry Jerome Award and was nominated twice for the Daytime Emmy Awards. What has always driven her in front of and behind the screen is her desire to shatter negative racial stereotypes. She has always been a passionate Canadian working tirelessly to create opportunities for others and has been an outspoken advocate for racial diversity and equity all of her life.
