Alexander was discovered at 14 by independent film company Merchant Ivory when she was attending the fifth week of a six-week summer acting class at the New Freedom Theatre.[5] Her first major film role was that of Joan in 1986's My Little Girl.[5] In 1989, she played Madri/Hidimbaa in Peter Brook's nine-hour epic play adaptation of The Mahabharata.[5] She was also cast in Bill Gunn's The Forbidden City, the last play directed by Public Theater impresario Joseph Papp. The play also starred Gloria Foster, Frankie Faison and Akili Prince.[6]
In 1990, Alexander starred opposite Whoopi Goldberg in the civil rightsepic drama film The Long Walk Home. She was then cast as Pam Tucker on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show, starring on the vastly popular series from 1990 until the show's finale in 1992. That same year, Alexander starred in the ABC comedy-drama series Going to Extremes, which centered on a group of American students at a medical school on a fictitious Caribbean island named Jantique.[7] The series was canceled after one season in early 1993.
From 2012 to 2015, Alexander had a recurring role as Carol Larabee, Mike and Vanessa's neighbor, in the ABC comedy series Last Man Standing. Tisha Campbell-Martin replaced her in this role during the show's seventh season.[10] In 2014, Alexander had a supporting role in the comedy-drama Elsa & Fred starring Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer. In 2017, she played Detective Latoya in the critically acclaimed horror film Get Out.[11]
From 2016 to 2017, Alexander starred as Constance Irving in the Amazon original drama, Bosch. She had recurring roles in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama series Queen Sugar in 2016 and Freeform fantasy drama Beyond from 2017 to 2018. In 2018, she was cast in a recurring role as Perenna in the CW superhero series Black Lightning. She received an NAACP Image Award nomination in 2019 for Outstanding Guest Performance in a Comedy or Drama Series.[12] Also in 2019, Alexander began starring in the Hulu drama series, Wu-Tang: An American Saga.[13][14] In 2021, she began appearing in a recurring role in the Starz comedy series, Run the World.[15] The following year, she starred in The Roku Channel drama series, Swimming with Sharks.
In 2012, Alexander co-created and co-wrote a science-fiction graphic novel, Concrete Park, with then-husband Tony Puryear.[20][21][22] In 2018, she penned season eleven of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comicGiles with Buffy creator Joss Whedon.[23] In 2023, she created and co-wrote the Dupont Columbia Award-winning Audible true-crime series Finding Tamika.
Alexander is a co-founder (with Ben Arnon) of Color Farm Media, an entertainment, innovation, and social impact company;[24] in 2020, they released John Lewis: Good Trouble, a documentary focusing on civil rights leader John Lewis.
