托尼亚·平金斯出生于伊利诺伊州芝加哥。她有四个孩子。她的父亲是一名警察和保险推销员，她的母亲曾是一名邮政工人。她有两个兄弟，埃里克·斯沃普和托马斯·斯沃普，还有一个妹妹塔梅拉·斯沃普，她与她疏远了。她从小就对艺术感兴趣。高中时，她在古德曼剧院青年计划学习表演。18 岁时，她短暂上过大学，并决定从事演艺事业。后来，她回到大学，在芝加哥的哥伦比亚学院获得本科学位，随后在卡内基梅隆大学的音乐戏剧项目攻读研究生，并在圣地亚哥的加州西部法学院学习了一年。

平金斯最令人钦佩的可能是她的舞台作品。她因在 Jelly's Last Jam 中饰演 Sweet Anita 而获得托尼奖。她因在《Play On！在《卡罗琳》或《嫦娥》中，她扮演了主角。她的其他百老汇作品包括《我们一起快乐》、《死亡预言编年史》、《狂野派对》、《花之屋》、《无线电高尔夫》、《杀戮时刻》和《如果你听见我的话》等。

平金斯曾在几部非百老汇作品中演出，包括 1983 年在莎士比亚中心由河滨莎士比亚剧团制作的《冬天的故事》中的牧羊女莫普萨的喜剧角色。

2011年，平金斯在拉霍亚剧院出演了克尔斯滕·格林尼奇（Kirsten Greenidge）的《像糖一样的牛奶》（Milk Like Sugar）的全球首映式，并获得了2012年克雷格·诺埃尔（Craig Noel）最佳戏剧女主角提名。她在彼得·杰伊·夏普剧院的剧作家地平线中重新扮演了自己的角色，并获得了 2012 年露西尔·洛特尔戏剧杰出女演员奖。

2012年，平金斯出演了香取厅的戏剧《伤害村》，这部关于孟菲斯住房项目生活和变化的坚韧不拔的戏剧在外百老汇的签名剧团进行了全球首演，作为剧院首季的一部分。该剧还有玛莎·斯蒂芬妮·布莱克、罗恩·塞法斯·琼斯、赛肯·森布洛、劳埃德·沃茨、查理·哈德森三世、尼古拉斯·克里斯托弗、科里·霍金斯、罗恩·塞法斯·琼斯和华金娜·卡卢坎戈。

2014年，平金斯出现在新联邦剧院的埃德·布林斯（Ed Bullins）的《神话般的玛丽小姐》（The Fabulous Miss Marie）的复兴中，与罗斯科·奥曼（Roscoe Orman）对戏;在百老汇制作的《Holler If Ya Hear Me》中;以及布兰登·雅各布斯-詹金斯（Branden Jacobs-Jenkins）的《战争》在耶鲁话剧团的全球首演。

她还拥有多产的电视生涯，客串了《陆军妻子》、《24》、《法律与秩序》、《考斯比秀》、《冷案》、《犯罪心理》和《卫报》等电视节目。在 1980 年代中期，平金斯在 CBS 肥皂剧《世界转动时》中创造了希瑟·道尔顿的角色。1991年，她在《我的孩子》中饰演利维亚·弗莱。平金斯于 1995 年离开了 All My Children，但在 2003 年又回到了她的角色。后来，她从2004年3月到2006年6月与该节目签订了合同，当时她被降级为经常性身份。她曾在热门电视节目 24 中扮演 Amala Motobo。她曾出演过几部电影的配角，包括《新野草》、《家》、《与伍迪·艾伦对戏的褪色吉戈洛》、《魔法》、《高级》、《浪漫与香烟》、《诺亚方舟：跳扫帚》和《边缘之上》等。

Tonya Pinkins was born in Chicago, Illinois. She has four children. Her father was a police officer and insurance salesman and her mother is a former postal worker. She has two brothers, Eric Swoope and Thomas Swoope and a sister Tamera Swoope from whom she is estranged. She was interested in the arts from a young age. In high school, she studied acting at the Goodman Theatre Young People's Program. Aged 18, she briefly attended college and decided to pursue an acting career instead. She later returned to college, earning an undergraduate degree from Columbia College in Chicago, followed by graduate work at Carnegie Mellon's music theater program, and a year at California Western School of Law in San Diego.

Pinkins is probably most admired for her stage work. She won a Tony Award for her performance as Sweet Anita in Jelly's Last Jam. She was nominated for her roles in Play On! and in Caroline, or Change, where she played the title role. Her additional Broadway credits include Merrily We Roll Along, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, The Wild Party, House of Flowers, Radio Golf, A Time To Kill and Holler If Ya Hear Me.

Pinkins has performed in several Off Broadway productions, including the comic role of Mopsa, the Shepherdess, in The Winter's Tale produced by the Riverside Shakespeare Company at The Shakespeare Center in 1983.

In 2011, Pinkins starred in the world premiere of Kirsten Greenidge’s Milk Like Sugar at La Jolla Playhouse, and received a 2012 Craig Noel nomination for Best featured Actress in a Play. She reprised her role in the Playwrights Horizons in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, and garnered a 2012 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play.

In 2012 Pinkins starred in Katori Hall's play Hurt Village, the gritty drama about life and change in a Memphis housing project made its world-premiere at Off-Broadway's Signature Theatre Company as part of the theatre's inaugural season. The play also Marsha Stephanie Blake, Ron Cephas Jones, Saycon Sengbloh, Lloyd Watts, Charlie Hudson III, Nicholas Christopher, Corey Hawkins, Ron Cephas Jones and Joaquina Kalukango.

In 2014, Pinkins appeared in New Federal Theatre's revival of Ed Bullins' The Fabulous Miss Marie opposite Roscoe Orman; in the Broadway production of Holler If Ya Hear Me; and the world premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' War at Yale Repertory.

She has also had a prolific television career making guest appearances on such television shows as Army Wives, 24, Law & Order, The Cosby Show, Cold Case, Criminal Minds, and The Guardian among others. During the mid-1980s Pinkins created the role of Heather Dalton on the CBS soap, As the World Turns. In 1991 she was cast as Livia Frye in All My Children. Pinkins left All My Children in 1995 but returned to her role in 2003. She was later put on contract with the show from March 2004 until June 2006, when she was downgraded to recurring status. She has played Amala Motobo on the popular television show 24. She has appeared in several films in supporting roles, including Newlyweeds, Home, Fading Gigolo opposite Woody Allen, Enchanted, Premium, Romance & Cigarettes, Noah's Arc: Jumping The Broom and Above the Rim among others.