Vanessa Estelle Williams

Williams was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.{{cite book|last=McCann|first=Bob|title=Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7ZYsnTPIhwC&pg=PA362|access-date=July 6, 2011|year=2010|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-3790-0|pages=362–}} Williams has three brothers and 1 sister.{{cite journal|title=Magnificent Journey|first=Robert|last=Waldron|pages=54–57|journal=Soap Opera Digest|date=January 30, 2017|volume=42|issue=5}} Her mother, Verdell, died when she was 10 years old leaving Williams to be raised by her grandmother, Johnnie Mae Mungen. Her father died in 2016.{{cite news|url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1993-06-27-9301200933-story.html|title=VANESSA WILLIAMS|work=Sun-Sentinel|date=June 27, 1993|access-date=July 6, 2020}}{{cite web|url=https://www.southjersey.com/article/1686/Vanessa-Williams|title=Vanessa Williams|website=SouthJersey.com|access-date=July 6, 2020}} She has traced her ancestry back to Georgia and Virginia.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBPtOlFX_as#t=19|title=Vanessa Williams and African Ancestry|website=ABC News|via=YouTube|access-date=December 12, 2013}}{{cbignore}}{{Dead YouTube link|date=February 2022}} After high school she went on to get a bachelor's degree in theater and business management from Marymount Manhattan College.{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Vanessa_Williams.aspx|title=Vanessa Williams|access-date=January 17, 2016}}

Williams later went to acting in films and television,{{cite web|url=http://articles.philly.com/1992-11-04/news/26008791_1_miss-america-scandal-vanessa-williams-cosby-show|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427112249/http://articles.philly.com/1992-11-04/news/26008791_1_miss-america-scandal-vanessa-williams-cosby-show|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 27, 2016|title=No, She's Not That Vanessa Williams 'Melrose' Star's Making A Name For Herself|work=philly-archives|access-date=January 17, 2016}} In the area of acting, she ran into name conflict with singer/actress and former Miss America Vanessa Williams (also born 1963). Screen Actors Guild rules prohibited duplicate stage naming. Vanessa Estelle had registered the name "Vanessa Williams" first,{{cite magazine|url=http://www.ew.com/article/1992/05/29/there-are-two-vanessa-williams|title=There are two Vanessa Williams|magazine=Entertainment Weekly |access-date=January 17, 2016}} so as a compromise, the former Miss America was occasionally credited as "Vanessa L. Williams" in acting credits. To compound the confusion, both actresses starred in versions of the drama Soul Food (Vanessa L. Williams in the film version, and Vanessa E. Williams in its TV series adaptation). The Screen Actors Guild eventually took the issue to arbitration and decided both actresses could use the professional name "Vanessa Williams".{{cite web |url=http://www1.myway.com/home/entertainment/celeb/tvguide_inthenews/0,13970,09_02_2003_1_-2,00.html |title=Vanessa Williams: Boomtown's New Bombshell! |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071211234405/http://www1.myway.com/home/entertainment/celeb/tvguide_inthenews/0,13970,09_02_2003_1_-2,00.html |archive-date=December 11, 2007 |work=TV Guide |date=September 2, 2003}}

Williams began her acting career in 1989, appearing in episodes of The Cosby Show and Law & Order. In 1992, she was cast as Rhonda Blair, the first and only black regular character, in the Fox prime time soap opera, Melrose Place. She was written off after only one season for lack of direction. "I think they didn't make the effort to equip themselves [to write for a black character], either by hiring a black writer or asking me things," said Williams later.{{cite web|url=http://www.geocities.ws/Hollywood/4616/tvgo0627.html|title=Vanessa Williams devastated when written off The Place|access-date=January 17, 2016}}

She later had guest starring roles on NYPD Blue and Living Single, before she was cast as a series regular in the ABC legal drama, Murder One (1995–1996) created by Steven Bochco. She received her first nomination for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance on the show. In 1996, Williams had a recurring role as Dr. Grace Carr in the CBS medical drama series, Chicago Hope, for which she received an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series nomination.

File:Actor Boris Kodjoe and Actress Vanessa Williams host the program..jpg in 2011]]

In 2000, Williams was cast as Maxine Chadway in the Showtime drama series Soul Food, a continuation of the successful 1997 film of the same name. Two other leads were played by Nicole Ari Parker and Malinda Williams. In the 1997 film, Vanessa L. Williams played the leading role of Teri Joseph, and Vivica A. Fox played Maxine. For her performance, Williams won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series in 2003, and received three additional nominations. The series aired to 2004 and went on to be the longest running drama with a predominantly black cast in the history of American prime-time television.{{cite web|url=https://www.today.com/popculture/no-black-dramas-left-television-wbna5054030|title=No black dramas left on television|work=Today.com|date=May 24, 2004 |access-date=January 16, 2016}}

After Soul Food, Williams had guest starring roles on Cold Case, Knight Rider and Lincoln Heights. In 2015, she was cast in a recurring role of Iris West's mother in The CW drama series, The Flash.{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2015/tv/news/the-flash-iris-mom-vanessa-williams-joe-west-1201605693/|title='The Flash' Casts 'Candyman' Star as Iris West's Mother|author=Laura Prudom|work=Variety|date=September 30, 2015 |access-date=January 17, 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-flash/news/a671152/the-flash-casts-iris-wests-missing-mum-candymans-vanessa-williams-joins-the-cw-series/|title=The Flash casts Iris West's missing mum|author=Jack Klompus|date=September 30, 2015|work=Digital Spy|access-date=January 17, 2016}} In October 2016, it was announced she was cast in the role of Valerie Grant on the NBC soap opera, Days of Our Lives.{{cite news|title=Vanessa Williams Joins DAYS|url=http://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/vanessa-williams-joins-days/|access-date=October 5, 2016|work=Soap Opera Digest|date=October 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006133456/http://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/vanessa-williams-joins-days/|archive-date=October 6, 2016|location=United States|url-status=dead}} In 2020, she was cast in a recurring role as Pippa Pascal in the second season The L Word: Generation Q, a role which she reprised for season three.

In film, Williams is best known for playing Keisha in the 1991 crime thriller New Jack City opposite Wesley Snipes and Ice T. She is also known for playing Anne-Marie McCoy in the 1992 horror film Candyman opposite Tony Todd and Virginia Madsen. The following years she had small parts in Drop Squad (1994), Mother (1996), Punks (2000), Like Mike (2002), and Imagine That (2009) alongside Soul Food co-star Nicole Ari Parker. Williams has also starred in a number of made for television movies, including Emmy Award-nominated performance in Our America (2002). She also had roles in several smaller productions in recent years. In 2021, she returned to her role of Anne-Marie McCoy in the fourth film in the Candyman film series.{{Cite web|url=https://screenrant.com/candyman-2020-movie-every-returning-actor-character-confirmed-rumored/|title=Candyman 2020: Every Returning Character Confirmed & Rumored|date=March 4, 2020|website=ScreenRant}}

Williams married Andre Wiseman in November 1992 when the couple eloped. The couple have two sons together: Omar Tafari (March 5, 1997){{cite magazine|title=Celebrity Baby Boom|first=Laura B|last=Randolph|department=Family|magazine=Essence|date=December 1997|volume=53|issue=2}} and Haile Zion Ali (born 2003).{{cite web|url=https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/vanessa-williams/bio/191071/|title=Vanessa Williams Biography|department=Celebrity Facts and Awards|publisher=TV Guide|access-date=July 6, 2020}} In April 2018, Williams filed for divorce from Wiseman for the second time.{{cite web|url=https://www.tmz.com/2018/04/16/vanessa-a-williams-files-divorce-second-time/|title=Vanessa A. Williams Files to Divorce Husband Again|date=April 16, 2018|publisher=TMZ|access-date=July 6, 2020}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Vanessa Estelle Williams}}

• {{IMDb name|0004539|Vanessa Williams}}

{{NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series}}

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Category:Actresses from Brooklyn

Category:American film actresses

Category:Living people

Category:People from Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

Category:American television actresses

Category:20th-century African-American actresses

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:21st-century American actresses

Category:21st-century African-American actresses

Category:1963 births

Category:Tikar people