Khandi Alexander

Khandi Alexander, born Harriet Rene Alexander on September 4, 1957, in Jacksonville, Florida, is an American dancer, choreographer, and actress. Her father, Henry Roland Alexander, owned a construction company, and her mother, Alverina Yavonna (Masters), was an opera and jazz singer. Alexander grew up in Queens, New York, and attended Queensborough Community College before launching a career that spanned stage, film, and television.

Alexander's professional life began on Broadway, where she performed between 1980 and 1997. Her stage credits include Bob Fosse's Dancin', Chicago, and Dreamgirls. Her work as a dancer extended into the music world as well; she appeared in Natalie Cole's 1988 music video for "Pink Cadillac" and served as choreographer for Whitney Houston's world tours from 1988 to 1992. Her television debut came in 1985 on the sketch-comedy program FTV.

By the early 1990s, Alexander had shifted her focus to film and television. Her film appearances during that decade included CB4 (1993), What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), Sugar Hill (1994), and There's Something About Mary (1998). In 1995, she was cast as Catherine Duke in the NBC sitcom NewsRadio, remaining with the series through its fourth season before returning for the season five premiere to memorialize co-star Phil Hartman. That same year, she began a recurring role as Jackie Robbins, sister to Dr. Peter Benton, in the NBC medical drama ER, a role she held until 2001.

Alexander earned significant critical recognition for her leading performance as Fran Boyd, a mother struggling with drug addiction, in the Emmy Award-winning HBO miniseries The Corner in 2000. From 2002 to 2009, she portrayed medical examiner Alexx Woods in the CBS police procedural CSI: Miami, departing the series near the end of the 2007–2008 season before returning for guest appearances in 2009. She also made guest appearances across numerous other television series during this period, including Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NYPD Blue, Third Watch, and Body of Proof.

In 2010, Alexander took on the role of LaDonna Batiste-Williams, a bar owner in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, in the HBO drama Treme, created by David Simon. She remained with the series for its full run of four seasons, concluding in 2013. That same year, she joined the cast of the ABC drama Scandal, playing Maya Lewis, the mother of Kerry Washington's character Olivia Pope. Her performance earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in 2015. Also in 2015, Alexander received a Critics' Choice Television Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Movie/Miniseries for her portrayal of Viola, Bessie Smith's sister, in the HBO film Bessie.