Jackée Harry

Jackée Harry, born Jacqueline Yvonne Harry on August 14, 1956, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is an American actress, comedian, and television personality. Raised in Harlem, New York, she studied acting at the High School of the Performing Arts in Manhattan before earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in education from Long Island University. Prior to pursuing a performance career, she taught American history at Brooklyn Technical High School for two years.

Harry's Broadway career spans 1978 to 2002 and includes credits in The Boys from Syracuse, A Broadway Musical, the play Time, and Eubie!. Her Broadway debut came in 1978 with A Broadway Musical. She later took on the role of a madam who runs a bordello in the Broadway musical The Boys from Syracuse. In 1994, she returned to the stage to portray Billie Holiday in the play Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. Her stage work also extended to national touring productions, including JD Lawrence's The Clean Up Woman, and mid-2000s productions of The Sunshine Boys, Damn Yankees, and A Christmas Carol.

On television, Harry made her acting debut in 1983 on the soap opera Another World, playing Lily Mason through 1986. In 1985, she joined the NBC sitcom 227 as Sandra Clark, a role she held until 1989 and which made her a nationally recognized figure. Her performance on that series earned her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, making her the first African American to receive that honor. Following her departure from 227, she co-starred with Oprah Winfrey in The Women of Brewster Place and later joined the cast of The Royal Family in 1991 after the death of star Redd Foxx, appearing opposite Della Reese.

From 1994 to 1999, Harry played Lisa Landry, the adoptive mother of Tia Mowry's character, on the sitcom Sister, Sister, which aired on ABC and later The WB. She went on to hold recurring roles on Everybody Hates Chris and the BET series Let's Stay Together, and starred in Byron Allen's sitcom The First Family from 2012 to 2015. In 2013, she appeared in multiple episodes of the Disney sitcom Girl Meets World and appeared alongside Marla Gibbs in the film Forbidden Woman. On December 8, 2020, Harry announced on the Today show that she had been cast as Paulina Price on the NBC and Peacock soap opera Days of Our Lives, a role she has held since March 2021 and for which she was placed on contract when the series was renewed for two additional seasons in 2021.

In film, Harry appeared in bit parts in Moscow on the Hudson and The Cotton Club in 1984, and in 1992 starred in Ladybugs opposite Rodney Dangerfield, playing the role of assistant coach. In her personal life, Harry was previously married to arranger and conductor Jerry Jemmott. In 1996, she married Elgin Charles Williams; the two adopted a son, Frank, in 1997, and later divorced in 2003.