Jenifer Lewis

Jenifer Jeanette Lewis, born January 25, 1957, in Kinloch, Missouri, is an American actress and singer whose career spans Broadway, film, television, and voice acting. She has been active on Broadway from 1978 to 2002, with credits including Eubie!, Comin' Uptown, Rock 'N Roll! The First 5,000 Years, and Hairspray.

Lewis made her Broadway debut in a small role in Eubie! in 1979, the musical built around the work of composer Eubie Blake. During the same period, she was cast as Effie White in the workshop of Dreamgirls, directed by Michael Bennett, though Jennifer Holliday was ultimately chosen for the role when the production moved to Broadway. Lewis subsequently became a Harlette, serving as a back-up singer for Bette Midler, a position that led to television appearances on Midler's HBO specials. She also developed an autobiographical comedy and music show, The Diva Is Dismissed, which she performed in New York City cabarets and later off-Broadway at the Public Theater. Her work as a back-up singer continued into film when she appeared in the Otto Titsling production number in Midler's Beaches in 1988.

After relocating to Los Angeles, Lewis built an extensive television résumé. She played Dean Davenport during the sixth and final season of A Different World from 1992 to 1993, and held a recurring role as Will Smith's Aunt Helen on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from 1991 to 1996. In 1995, she starred alongside Patricia Wettig in the legal drama Courthouse, playing Judge Rosetta Reide, described as the first main African American lesbian character on television. From 2000 to 2006, she starred as Lana Hawkins on the Lifetime medical drama Strong Medicine, for which she also performed the theme song. Beginning in 2014, Lewis was cast as Ruby Johnson, the mother of Anthony Anderson's character, in the ABC comedy series Black-ish, and was elevated to series regular status in the second season. She received two Critics' Choice Television Award nominations for the role, including a nomination for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series in 2016. She also held a recurring role as Veretta Childs in the UPN sitcom Girlfriends.

Her film career includes a wide range of supporting and maternal roles. In 1992, she appeared as one of Whoopi Goldberg's back-up singers in Sister Act. The following year, she played the mother of Tupac Shakur's character in Poetic Justice and portrayed Zelma Bullock, Tina Turner's mother, in What's Love Got to Do With It, starring Angela Bassett. The latter performance earned Lewis her first NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. In 1996, she played Whitney Houston's character's mother in The Preacher's Wife, receiving her second NAACP Image Award nomination. Additional film credits include Dead Presidents (1995), Cast Away (2000), directed by Robert Zemeckis, The Brothers (2001), The Cookout (2004), Hereafter (2010), directed by Clint Eastwood, Think Like a Man (2012), Think Like a Man Too (2014), Baggage Claim (2013), and The Wedding Ringer (2015). She also appeared in The Temptations miniseries in 1998. Her performance in Five earned her a third NAACP Image Award nomination.

Lewis has contributed substantially to animated film and television. She voiced Mama Odie in Walt Disney Animation Studios's The Princess and the Frog (2009), a role for which she received an Annie Award nomination for Voice Acting in a Feature Production. She also voiced the character Flo in Pixar's Cars franchise.

On April 22, 2008, Lewis joined the Broadway cast of Hairspray, replacing Darlene Love in the role of Motormouth Maybelle. In 2017, she published a memoir titled The Mother of Black Hollywood, a phrase that has also become her unofficial designation given the frequency of her matriarchal roles across film and television. Lewis received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Webster University in 2015. In 2022, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2024, she received a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. That same year, she competed on season eleven of The Masked Singer as "Miss Cleocatra" and was eliminated on "Girl Group Night." Also in 2024, the ABC special After the Fall: A Conversation with Robin Roberts and Jenifer Lewis aired, detailing a life-threatening accident Lewis experienced while on vacation in Africa. Lewis has an adopted daughter named Charmaine Lewis.