Lisa Gay Hamilton is an American actress best known for her role as attorney Rebecca Washington on the television series The Practice (1997-2003). Hamilton is also known as a director; she received a Peabody Award for her documentary Beah: A Black Woman Speaks about the life of Beah Richards. Lisa Gay Hamilton began her career performing on the theatrical stage. Her first notable success was a role in the play Measure for Measure, after which she achieved success through her dramatic roles. For her role in the production The Valley of the Song in 1995-1996, she received Obie and Drama Desk Awards for Best Actress. She received her second Obie in 2008 for her performance in the play A Murder in Ohio.

In 1997, after several small supporting roles in the films The Underneath, 12 Monkeys, and Jackie Brown, Hamilton landed one of the lead roles in the ABC television series The Practice, which brought her three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. Between filming, she appeared in the films Beloved with Oprah Winfrey and True Crime with Clint Eastwood. In 2003 she left the series, and afterward played one of the lead roles in the film Nine Lives. In 2009-2011 she played the wife of Andre Braugher on the television series Men of a Certain Age. Her subsequent television roles were on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Grey's Anatomy, and Scandal.