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Lonette McKee
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Miami Vice Character
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Born
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July 22, 1954, Detroit, Michigan
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Active
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1976-present
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Spouse
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Leo Compton (1983-1990)
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Lonette McKee (Born July 22, 1954) is an American actress, singer, songwriter, and director. She appeared in the show Miami Vice as Alicia Mena, reporter for a Miami television station in the episode "Stone's War".
Early life/Career[]
McKee was born in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Dorothy and Lonnie McKee. Lonnie was a bricklayer and auto manufacturer employee. McKee's career began in the music business in Detroit as a child prodigy, where she started writing music/lyrics, singing, playing keyboards and performing at the age of seven. At fourteen, she recorded her first record, which became an instant regional pop/R&B hit. McKee wrote the title song for the film Quadroon when she was fifteen. She appeared on the music series Soul Train in 1975 along with Ike & Tina Turner. She made her film debut the next year in Sparkle (with Philip Michael Thomas), then appeared in the films Which Way Is Up? (with Margaret Avery), Cuba (with Walter Gotell), The Cotton Club (with James Remar, Julian Beck, and Laurence Fishburne), where she performed the song "Ill Wind". McKee made her TV debut in 1985 with an appearance in The Equalizer. She also appeared on stage in the plays The First (as Rachel Robinson, wife of Jackie), as Julia "Julie" LaVerne in Show Boat (for which she was nominated for a Tony), as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, and an international production of Sophisticated Ladies.
After her Vice appearance, McKee returned to movies with roles in Gardens of Stone (with Fishburne), The Women of Brewster Place (with Lynn Whitfield), Jungle Fever (with Wesley Snipes and John Turturro), and Malcolm X (with Giancarlo Esposito. She returned to television in a recurring role on Third Watch in 2003. She had written and produced three solo LPs, the most recent, "Natural Love", for Spike Lee's Columbia 40 Acres and A Mule label and scored the music for the well-received cable documentary on the Lower Manhattan African Burial Ground National Monument. The 2010 movie Dream Street was written, produced, directed, and scored by McKee. Her more recent film appearances were in the movies Honey 2, Luv (with Charles S. Dutton) and 2015's Against the Jab, and the TV series The Game.
Personal life[]
McKee has a sister, Kathrine. She was married to a youth counselor, Leo Compton, from 1983-1990, when they divorced. They had no children. McKee is also an animal lover, known to intuit & communicate with birds.