Deborah Joy Winans

Detroit native Deborah Joy Winans belongs to the distinguished Winans musical clan and has earned recognition for her work as an actor across stage and screen alongside her output as a contemporary gospel singer. She completed a fine arts degree at Wayne State University in her hometown before enrolling at the California Institute of Arts, where she received a Master's degree in acting. Her initial screen credit arrived with the 2014 independent film Fragile World. The next year she appeared as her aunt CeCe Winans in the Angela Bassett-directed Lifetime production Whitney. She was later selected for the central part of music minister Charity Greenleaf-Satterlee on the OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) series Greenleaf and contributed to every track on the show's soundtrack issued in 2016.