Tonya Williams is a renowned actress and advocate with a unique triple citizenship, holding British, Canadian, and American passports. Born in London, England, she is an only child to Justice G. Williams Q.C (deceased) and Korah Williams, a retired Registered Nurse and Midwife, who are both of Jamaican descent.
Tonya's early life was marked by frequent moves, as her parents emigrated to New York for six months when she was just a year old, before returning to Jamaica to establish her father's law practice. However, her parents separated in 1963, and later divorced in 1974. When she was five, her mother and she returned to England, where they lived in Birmingham before emigrating to Canada in May 1970, when Tonya was eleven years old.
Growing up in Canada, Tonya developed a passion for the arts, which was nurtured through her training in classical piano and violin, which she studied from the ages of five to seventeen. During her high school years, she was the only student chosen to represent her school at the Ontario Music Leadership Camp, and it was there that she met casting director Karen Hazzard, which led to her booking a national 'wear a moustache' milk campaign and other TV commercials.
After completing high school, Tonya auditioned and landed a place in the drama program at Ryerson University. Her first job after Ryerson was to star as 'Billy' in Mavor Moore's stage musical 'Love and Politics', which led to numerous acting roles in film and television in Toronto. She then decided to move to Los Angeles in 1988, where she guest-starred in several roles before landing the coveted role of Olivia Barber Hastings Winters on The Young and The Restless from 1990 to 2011.
During her time at Y&R, Tonya was also involved in various initiatives for human rights and social justice. In 1995, she traveled to Rwanda on a Peace Mission for World Vision.
