Tommy was born in Cape Town, South Africa, during apartheid and experienced racial segregation because she was a non-white citizen. The family lived in the Factreton township. Her father was a high-school teacher and politically active against the apartheid regime. In 1985, when the South African government declared a state of emergency, Tommy's family emigrated to the USA where her father had studied Urban Planning at MIT on a Fulbright scholarship in the 1970s. They moved to Boston when Tommy was 15 years old. She attended Newton North High School where she was one of the few black students. Tommy stated that while in high school, she found a common language and purpose through theatre and made that her main focus.
After graduation, Tommy studied acting with Clare Davidson in London. After she returned to Boston, she worked as a pre-school teacher at Project AFRIC (Advancement for Families Rich in Children), a program working with at-risk families in the Roxbury area of Boston. Tommy attended a conservatory program through Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island.[citation needed] While in acting school she developed an interest in directing and her teachers gave her the opportunity to direct a show once a year until she graduated.[citation needed]
Tommy has directed theatre all over the United States, including Center Stage (Baltimore, Maryland), Dallas Theater Center (Dallas, Texas), California Shakespeare Theater (San Francisco, California), Sundance East Africa, Berkeley Repertory Theatre (Berkeley, California), and La Jolla Playhouse (La Jolla, California).

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