Cathy Tyson's father is a barrister from Trinidad and her mother is an English social worker. She dropped out of college at age 17 to pursue acting at Liverpool's Everyman's Theater. After a 1984 production of "The Blitz Show", she won admission to the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her film debut was as an elegant prostitute in _Mona Lisa .
Her theatre credits include leading roles for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park, Talawa and Theatr Clwyd. In 1998 she played an exotic Cleopatra in an acclaimed production of "Antony and Cleopatra" at the English Shakespeare Company.
Son Jack Joseph born in June 1988 with husband Craig Charles.
Cicely Tyson is her aunt.
