Sanaa McCoy Lathan (born September 19, 1971) is an American actress.

Lathan, whose first name is Arabic for Work of Art, is the second oldest of five children born in New York City to Eleanor McCoy, a Broadway actress and dancer, and Stan Lathan, a director and producer. Surrounded by show business since birth, Lathan began training in dance and gymnastics at an early age. Following her parents' divorce, she grew up shuttling between her mother's home in New York City and Los Angeles, California, where her father lived.

During her undergraduate education at the University of California, Berkeley, from which she earned a B.A. in English in 1992 and toyed with the idea of becoming a lawyer, Lathan became involved with the Black Theater Workshop. Thanks in part to her stage experiences with the Workshop, she was encouraged to try out for the Yale School of Drama, where she was ultimately accepted.