NYPD Blue was born in New York City on September 19, 1971. Her name (pronounced Sa-na) is Swahili for "work of art" or "beauty." The daughter of director Stan Lathan and Broadway actress-dancer Eleanor McCoy, Sanaa has four siblings, elder brother Tendaji and younger sisters Liliane, Arielle, and Colette.

With both her parents in the arts, Sanaa was practically weaned on show business. "[My mother] was actually dancing when she was pregnant with me," Sanaa says. "As a kid, I was always hanging around the theater." Sanaa also took dance and gymnastics lessons.

Sanaa's parents divorced when she was still a child. She divided her time between her mother in New York, and her father in Beverly Hills; by the 10th grade, Sanaa remained in New York where she attended an arts high school.

Next, Sanaa attended UC Berkeley, where she majored in English, and performed in the Black Theater Workshop. Upon graduation, she nearly became a lawyer; "I just like[d] the way it sounded," Sanaa later confessed. But a recruiter encouraged her to apply to the Yale School of Drama, so she crisscrossed the country once again, and earned an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in acting there.

At first, Sanaa tried to make in on Broadway. But when her career didn't seem to be taking off, Sanaa, encouraged by her father, moved to Los Angeles to seek work in film and television. She made appearances on the shows Moesha and In the House in 1996, then went on to guest star on Family Matters in 1997 and NYPD Blue in 1998; she also starred in two short-lived TV series during this time, Built to Last and LateLine. Sanaa had her first movie role in Drive (1997), and then played Wesley Snipes' mother in Blade (1998).

Sanaa's movie career went to the next level when she starred in The Wood (1999), opposite Omar Epps The two quickly became an item, and their relationship lasted a number of years. Meanwhile, Sanaa appeared in Life (1999), Catfish in Black Bean Sauce (1999), and The Best Man (1999).

She and boyfriend Epps re-teamed onscreen for the romantic comedy Love & Basketball in 2000. The role of basketball player Monica Wright won Sanaa a number of awards, including an NAACP Image Award for Best Actress. The same year, Sanaa also reunited with Wesley Snipes in the HBO movie Disappearing Acts, adapted from a Terry McMillan novel.

In 2002, Sanaa appeared in Brown Sugar with The Best Man co-star Taye Diggs and then followed up with the thriller Out of Time, alongside Denzel Washington, in 2003.

Though she had made a name for herself in romantic comedies and dramas, Sanaa took on a whole new kind of role in 2004 -- the lead in the anticipated sci-fi gore-fest AVP: Alien Vs. Predator.

Part of the reason for Sanaa's slowed film output was her return to Broadway. In 2004, she was cast as the mercurial Beneatha Younger in the revival of A Raisin in the Sun, starring Sean (P. Diddy) Combs. The role garnered Sanaa numerous critical accolades and a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress. Still feeling at home in both New York and Los Angeles, Sanaa says she prefers the latter because that's where the film industry is located -- and she can spend time on the beach.