Aloma Wright
Aloma Wright is an actor, born 1950.
Aloma Wright has built a career out of the person on the other side of the counter. Laverne Roberts ran the nurses' station on Scrubs from 2001, Gretchen sat outside the partners' offices on Suits, Mildred handled the front desk on Private Practice, and there is a desk nurse in Medical Investigation and a judge in Universal Remote for good measure. It is a specific and underrated line of work: the character who has been in the building longer than anyone with a title, and who is not impressed by any of them.
Scrubs is where most people met her. Laverne was written as a comic obstacle and Wright played her as a woman with a full life happening off screen, devout, blunt and funnier than the doctors, which is why the character outgrew the role as written. She stayed with the show across its NBC and ABC runs, from 2001 to 2009.
Her other long jobs have come in daytime and comedy: Maxine Landis on Days of Our Lives from 2008 to 2015, Aunt Clarice on The Carmichael Show, Viola on Tyler Perry's Young Dylan. On film she has mostly played mothers, aunts and church women in the Black ensemble comedies and dramas of the early 2000s, among them Deliver Us from Eva, The Brothers, Kingdom Come, Johnson Family Vacation and The Gospel.
Movies (11)
TV (13)
Where to start with Aloma Wright
Scrubs first, without hesitation. Laverne is in the show from the start, and two episodes will tell you whether her particular deadpan works on you. It works on most people.
Suits is the best of the later television: Gretchen is a small part played with total authority, and the writers are smart enough to let her win exchanges with the leads. Private Practice and The Carmichael Show are the next tier, the second being much the funnier series. On film, Deliver Us from Eva is the sharpest thing she is in, The Gospel the most sincere, and Kingdom Come a broad family comedy that gives its older women more to do than most. Tyler Perry's Young Dylan is her current work.