Throughout this past year, actress Tika Sumpter has very successfully made the crossover to feature film work, fine-tuning her acting skills over the last four years on the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live as designer Layla Williamson. Tika Sumpter is currently filming recurring roles on the popular shows "Gossip Girl" and "The Game".

Catch Tika in the new 20th Century Fox comedy "What's Your Number?" starring Anna Farris and Chris Evans due out January 2011. Tika recently co-starred as the female lead character in the DVD favorite "Stomp the Yard 2", produced my Rainforest Films and is now out on Blue Ray DVD.

Tika joined One Life To Live in July 2005 and her hard work and success as an actress started getting real recog-nition, evident by her being nominated as “Best Actress in a Daytime Series” by the NAACP Image Awards for 2008. Prior to working with ABC Daytime Television, in the summer of 2004, she co-hosted an original show for the MTV owned N Network called Best Friends Date and played principal roles in several Mobias Pictures educational films shown in high schools nationwide, raising awareness on teen issues such as pregnancy, sex, drugs, peer pressure and the general struggles all teens face. While doing these films, Sumpter studied acting with soap veteran Larkin Malloy (Travis Montgomery on All My Children) at Graystone Studios and also with Marc Jones of The Barrow group.

Tika’s textured, husky voice also enabled artist for many national television and radio clients, helping to market various products & services. Her vocal talents came as no surprise, as Tika Sumpter grew up the fourth child of a family of singers in Queens and Middle Island, NY. She discovered her vocal abilities as a teenager and has been singing her entire life.

At the age of 17, Tika worked as a door hostess at famed New York nightspot Life, where the club’s
owner was very supportive of Tika's strong passion for acting, even referring her to an agent he knew.
She went on to study at Marymount Manhattan College and completed acting courses at The Weiss Barron Acting studio, while also meeting with modeling/acting agencies for representation.

For a short time, she took on modeling assignments before signing with a major commercial & theatrical agency. Tika was almost immediately booking national commercials for international brands including Liz Claiborne’s Curve fragrances, Hewlett Packard, Lowes Home Improvement and Cascade. She also did some very prominent Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) for a national anti-smoking campaign and an AIDS awareness campaign.

While film and television work remain the priority, Tika Sumpter still finds time for songwriting and recording sessions whenever possible. Just this past year, Tika co-wrote and recorded several original pop songs, while a few years back, she performed a track called Paint the World, America’s Anthem on the independent compilation CD One Life, Many Voices featuring cast members from One Life To Live in the effort to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina.

While preparing for the 2010 release of Stomp The Yard 2: Homecoming, Tika Sumpter will continue her work on ABC’s One Life To Live, a show she loves doing, and is currently considering various other film projects for the coming year. She is also now co-writing songs and working on an alternative Pop/Rock album with prominent songwriter Chris Pelcer.