Carol Christine Hilaria Pounder is a Guyanese-born American actress who performed the voice of Amanda Waller in Batman: Arkham Origins (2013), Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate (2013) and the animated film Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014). She has received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her roles in The X-Files, ER, The Shield, and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.
Pounder was born in British Guiana (now Guyana) on December 25, 1952. Her full name, Carol Christine Hilaria Pounder, is in honor of her grandmothers and godmothers. She was raised on a sugar plantation that her father managed. Her mother worked at the United States Embassy while the family lived in London, England. Pounder attended a Catholic boarding school in Sussex, England.
She matriculated at Hastings College of Arts and Technology where Pounder studied painting, but dropped out as a freshman after moving to the United States. Her family had already settled in New York while she was attending school. Pounder graduated from Ithaca College in 1975. Pounder stated her parents did not support her choice to be an actress, with her mother instead wanting Pounder to be a newscaster.
Pounder made her acting debut in the film All That Jazz (1979). She continued her career in New York City theater, where she appeared in The Mighty Gents by playwright Richard Wesley, and Open Admissions on Broadway. She moved to Los Angeles in 1982. She starred in the film Bagdad Café, and has made smaller appearances in many other films.
She focused primarily on her television career. In the early 1980s, Pounder first appeared in guest roles on Hill Street Blues, and then on several shows (The Cosby Show, L.A. Law, The X-Files, Living Single, and Quantum Leap) before landing a long-running recurring role as Dr. Angela Hicks on ER from 1994 to 1997. She also co-starred in the Tales From the Crypt feature film Demon Knight (1995). She then returned to guest appearances on other shows, including The Practice, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Millennium, The West Wing (where she was considered for the role of C. J. Cregg), and the short-lived sitcom Women in Prison.
Pounder portrayed the government agent Amanda Waller in the show Justice League Unlimited which was part of the DCAU (DC Animated Universe), which role she reprised for the animated film adaptation of the comic book Superman/Batman: Public Enemies and was one of a number of actors who reprised their roles from the DCAU for the Arkham games such as Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Arleen Sorkin, Tara Strong, Loren Lester, Robert Costanzo, Corey Burton, Khary Payton, Hynden Walch, Jennifer Hale, Peter MacNicol, Michael Rosenbaum and Adrienne Barbeau who all returned in the Arkham games, although some in different roles.