- Moved to Britain in 1959 at the age of 24 after winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
- She is an actress and co-founder of the Talawa Theatre Company in England.
- She was awarded the O.B.E.(Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to drama.
- Despite playing his grandmother on EastEnders (1985), Hammond is only 28 years older than Howard Antony.
- She starred in many plays by an array of up-and-coming black writers: Sweet Talk by Michael Abbensetts, 11 Josephine House by Alfred Fagon and several plays written by Mustapha Matura including As Time Goes By, Play Mas and Playboy of the West Indies.
- In 2006 Hammond was presented with the Edric Connor Inspiration Award - the Screen Nation Film and Television Awards' highest UK honour.
- She also spent two years at the National Theatre in productions including Fuente Ovejuna and Peer Gynt directed by Declan Donnellan, and The Crucible.
- Her first leading role was as Lady Macbeth at the Roundhouse in 1970 in Peter Coe's African version of the play.
- Her father was Chinese and her mother was Jamaican.
- Hammond also won a place in many people's hearts for her role of Auntie Susu in ground-breaking sitcom Desmond's, as well as spin-off show Porkpie. With a predominantly black cast and crew, the barber shop comedy became one of Channel 4's longest running sitcoms in terms of episodes.
- She attended evening classes at the City Literary Institute in London for two years and was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), graduating in 1964.
- In 1985, Hammond, along with Yvonne Brewster, Inigo Espejel and Carmen Munroe, founded Talawa Theatre Company, which became one of the UK's most prominent black theatre companies.
- Talawa Theatre Company produced award-winning plays about the African diaspora, and championed reinterpretations of classical British pieces. Hammond performed in several of its productions, including The Black Jacobins, The Importance of Being Earnest and King Lear.
- Hammond has appeared in ITV's Coronation Street twice, first playing the role of Jan Sargent, and the second time playing Velma Armitage, mother of Shirley Armitage in 1988.
- On the big screen, she had small roles in Roland Emmerich's 10,000 BC and the Shakespeare adaptation Coriolanus, co-starring Ralph Fiennes and Vanessa Redgrave.
- In 1994, she was cast as Blossom Jackson in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. She remained in the role until 1997. This was Hammond's second character in the soap, having previously played the minor part of Michelle Fowler's midwife in 1986. It was a part that brought her into millions of living rooms several times a week.
- Hammond left the soap EastEnders after a relatively brief tenure, which tabloids reported at the time was due to its intense shooting schedule.
- Hammond began her career on stage, and made early appearances on television shows such as Softly, Softly (1968) and The Troubleshooters (1969).
- When she moved in 1959 to the UK she worked for Norman and Dawbarn Architects.
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