Peggy Pettitt (born 1952), is an African American actress, dancer, teacher, playwright and storyteller. She is a native of St. Louis, Missouri.
Pettitt's grandparents were a big influence, telling her stories, which would stick in Pettitt's mind. Pettitt also observed various types of persons who lived in her neighborhood.
She valued greatly the sincere integrity of the working people who made up her community.
In 1969, she went to Antioch College, where she was exposed to the difficulties that sometimes surface between people of different races or monetary status, and, at the same time, to the unity that sometimes crosses all boundaries.
In 1972, during the so-called era of Blaxpotation movies, Pettitt went on to make her first, feature film, "Black Girl ". In "Black Girl", she played an orphan who was adopted by a woman; her adoptive uncle offered her a job as a bartender at a strip club he owned, but her character wanted to become a dancer. Pettitt was nominated for Best Actress by the NAACP for her role in "Black Girl", written by J.E. Franklin and directed by Ossie Davis.
In 1974, she graduated from Antioch College. Soon after that, she moved to London on a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, where, for the first time, she experienced working with many diverse populations include working class white and blacks, youngsters from the Caribbean.
Pettitt, however, faced many struggles. She continues her theater career in writing and performing her own work which includes more than ten original plays, produced by such venues as Performance Space 122 in New York. New York Times critic, D. J. R. Bruner says, "Ms Pettitt's judgments of her characters are clear-eyed and sharp, and so is her judgement of life, "Caught Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" is full of wisdom and wicked humor". She also performed in Zora Noele Hurston and Langston Hughes historical comedy, "Mule Bone" and has received numerous grants and awards, including an NEA, New York Foundation for the Arts, and Fulbright Fellowship.
She currently teaches Self-Scripting at New York University's ETW. She teaches at elementary schools, high schools and for Age Exchange of London.
Pettitt is happily married (23years) to writer, director and painter Remy Tissier