Born in Jamaica, Yanna McIntosh is a Canadian television, movie, and theatrical actress. She studied acting at the University of Toronto and at Harvard University. Her first significant TV role was in the medical drama Side Effects (1994). She appeared in many roles in both television and theatre. In 2011, McIntosh won the Toronto Theatre Critics' Award for Best Actress for her role in Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Ruined, and in 2014 she received a nomination for the Canadian Screen Award for best actress in a television film or miniseries for her role as Cleopatra in Stratford Festival: Antony and Cleopatra (2015).