Demetria McKinney
Demetria Dyan McKinney was born on August 27, 1979 (Demetria McKinney age: 42) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. McKinney moved frequently due to the nature of her family’s military affiliation.
McKinney enrolled at Okaloosa Walton Community College to study theater and performed in plays in college as well as with theater companies outside of her college. She was discovered by Tyler Perry when he saw her perform in a touring play called The Woman I am Today. Due to her discovery by Perry, she discontinued her degree so that she could pursue her acting career.
After being discovered by Perry, McKinney performed in several of Perry’s plays, later starring as Janine Shelton-Payne on Tyler Perry’s House of Payne for six years, a role that she reprised in the 2018 TV spinoff The Paynes. Most of her early roles were in Perry’s projects; after her film debut in Perry’s romantic comedy Daddy’s Little Girls in 2007, she began to act in various short films and landed a role in the 2010 romantic comedy film Breaking Up Is Hard to Do. In 2011, she acted in Necessary Roughness, marking her first TV role outside of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne.
In 2017, McKinney portrayed Whitney Houston in the television film Bobbi Kristina. In the same year, McKinney released Officially Yours, her debut album. She was awarded the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding New Artist for her album.
In 2020, McKinney started her role as Anacostia Quartermaine, a series regular on Freeform’s Motherland: Fort Salem.
McKinney rose to prominence for her role in Tyler Perry’s House of Payne as Janine Payne. McKinney stayed on the show for a total of 94 episodes throughout the show’s 254 episodes. The show follows the fictional, multi-generational Payne family in Atlanta, Georgia. She first appeared as a guest star in the show’s pilot then went on to be a part of the main cast throughout seasons one through nine. House of Payne has the most aired episodes for a television series with a majority African-American cast.
In a conversation with uInterview, McKinney described staying at home during the coronavirus pandemic as “an interesting home study.”
“The last couple of years, especially, I’ve been very busy with work, so I’ve gotten to travel a lot more. When I got home, I literally melted to my bed because I knew I only had like a couple of days to a week before I was back out of here. My son was usually floating around like a feather in Forrest Gump, just really enjoying life without mom here, and so now we’re really, really into each other’s space… Thank God we love each other and we have a great relationship.”
“He’s definitely grown so I’m thankful for that, he’s like 21, and so I’m not sitting around like a lot of the parents like, ‘Oh my gosh I have to home school, fourth-grade math is kicking my butt!'” McKinney added with a laugh of relief.
McKinney said that although the initial adjustment was difficult, the extra time at home allowed her to take on new things. “It’s just been cool, it started off rocky at the beginning but now I’m adjusting by finding different things that I like, you know, I’ve been working with mulch… Something I never thought I’d say. Pulling weeds in the backyard, reclaiming my grounds, you know? It’s really, really interesting to find new ways to be well outside of your element.”
McKinney sat down with uInterview to discuss her role in Freeform’s new supernatural drama TV series Motherland: Fort Salem. Motherland follows three young witches who enlist in the U.S. Army at Fort Salem in a female-dominated world. McKinney plays Anacostia Quartermaine, Fort Salem’s drill sergeant.
> WATCH: DEMETRIA MCKINNEY ON ‘MOTHERLAND’
“I teach all the young ladies how to harness their power, use the work, which is the magic that we embody in the show, and how to just grow up as ladies. As you know, this is an all-female army and they’re comprised of witches, so I’m responsible for life and death on the battlefield basically,” McKinney said.
McKinney stars alongside Taylor Hickson, Amalia Holm, Jessica Sutton, Ashley Nicole Williams and Lyne Renée. She described the day they all first met as one of the best moments of working with the cast.
“Coming from different walks of life, different countries, you know, Jessica [Sutton] is from South Africa, Lyne [Renée] is from Belgium… Everybody’s from all these different places, just seeing how different we were, some of the different lingos to the different experiences we’ve had in the industry, or, if this was new for us, just really getting to know each other was really cool.”
McKinney recounted that seeing the “drastic differences” between the actresses and their on-screen characters was one of her favorite parts of working with the cast. Of her costar Renée, McKinney said, “She’s absolutely stunning and she’s very smart but she is also such a goober in the best way. She’s just really odd in herself which makes her that much more endearing.” This made seeing Renée “snap into General Alder [Renée’s character]” that much more striking to McKinney.
When asked if she believes in the supernatural, McKinney replied, “I think we’re crazy if we think there’s not something else out there. I mean the universe is just way too vast there’s still so much we don’t know if we can sit here and be really honest with ourselves and say we don’t know what’s really in our own oceans, how dare we say we know what’s in the cosmos or even the atmosphere like, everything is possible.”
McKinney faced homelessness, abuse, and single motherhood at 17. She told The Pop Topic, “My late teens into my twenties was a pretty rough time for me. I experienced homelessness, molestation, an abusive relationship while living in the projects, and I had a baby younger than I expected to. I think that understanding the journey is going to have rocks, thorns, and potholes. However, those roadblocks are a big part of how I made it through. Everything, even the bad stuff happened for a reason. I couldn’t let any of those things be the reason that I didn’t go on and strive for the things I wanted in life.”
Is Demetria McKinney married? McKinney has never been married. McKinney was engaged to long-time partner Roger Bobb in 2016 but confirmed their split later that year.
How old is Demetria McKinney? McKinney is 40 years old.
Does Demetria McKinney have a child? McKinney has one son. He is 21 years old.
How tall is Demetria McKinney? McKinney is 5’9″.
What is Demetria McKinney’s net worth? According to Celebrity Net Worth, McKinney has a net worth of $3 million.
| Year | Title | Role |
| 2004 | Meet the Browns (Video) | Kim |
| 2006 | Why Did I Get Married? (Video) | Trina |
| 2007 | Daddy’s Little Girls | Club Lady 1 |
| 2007 | Standing Reign (Short) | Reign |
| 2008 | Before I Wake (Short) | Tracy Mason |
| 2010 | Breaking Up Is Hard to Do | Shonda |
| 2011 | Church Girl | Emily |
| 2011 | Necessary Roughness (TV Series) – Whose Team Are You On? | Leanne |
| 2012 | Raising Izzie | Singer |
| 2006-2012 | House of Payne (TV Series) (94 episodes) | Janine Payne |
| 2012 | Boulevard West (TV Series) | Yvette |
| 2013 | In the Meantime | Felicia |
| 2013 | Let the Church Say Amen | Tawny |
| 2014 | Let’s Stay Together (TV Series) – Date My Wife, Please | Shauna |
| 2014 | Drop Dead Diva (TV Series) – Cheers & Jeers | Lisa |
| 2013-2014 | The Rickey Smiley Show (TV Series) – Prank Off – Fotus | Monica |
| 2014 | Devious Maids (TV Series) – Private Lives | Natasha Jones |
| 2015 | Mann and Wife (TV Series) – Mann-ditory Counseling | Lisa Lovejoy |
| 2015 | Sons 2 the Grave | Vanessa Bishop |
| 2016 | Chicago Med (TV Series) – Win Loss | Mrs. James |
| 2017 | Being Mary Jane (TV Series) – Feeling Lost | |
| 2017 | Bobbi Kristina | Whitney Houston |
| 2017 | Providence Island | Mary Dunbar |
| 2017-2018 | Superstition (TV Series) (11 episodes) | May Westbrook |
| 2018 | The Paynes (TV Series) – A Confrontation of Payne – Revelations of Payne – A Surprise for the Paynes | Janine Payne |
| 2017-2018 | The Quad (TV Series) – #TheColorPurple – #InvisibleMan – Elevators – Pilot | Beretta Hobbs |
| 2018 | Redemption of a Dogg (Stageplay) | |
| 2018 | A Stone Cold Christmas | Mia Stone |
| 2016-2019 | Saints & Sinners (TV Series) (20 episodes) | Tamara Austin-Calloway |
| 2020 | Motherland: Fort Salem (TV Series) – Witchbomb – Coup – Citydrop – Mother Mycelium – Up Is Down – Bellweather Season – Hail Beltane – A Biddy’s Life – My Witches – Say the Words | Anacostia Quartermaine |
| 2019-2020 | A House Divided (TV Series) (14 episodes) | Carissa Walker |
| 2020 | American Soul (TV Series) – Satisfaction | June Pointer |
| Year | Title | Album/Single |
| 2013 | Work With Me | Single |
| 2014 | 100 (feat. da Brat) | Single |
| 2015 | Trade It All | Single |
| 2015 | Unnecessary Trouble (feat. Kandi) | Single |
| 2017 | Easy | Single |
| 2017 | Is This Love | Single |
| 2017 | Happy | Single |
| 2017 | No, No, No | Single |
| 2017 | – Caught Up In The Moment – Set It Off (feat. Demarco) – Easy – All or Nothing – Stay – SexTraOrdinary Interlude – Kissin (feat. Jazze Pha) – Is This Love – Happy – No, No, No – SexTraOdinary – You Give Good Love – B.S. (Bonus Track) – Home (Bonus Track) | Officially Yours (Bonus Track Edition) |
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