Kiki Shepard

Kiki Shepard, born Chiquita Renee Shepard on July 15, 1951, in Tyler, Texas, was an American actress, dancer, and television host whose career spanned Broadway, film, and television. She died on March 16, 2026, in Los Angeles following a heart attack, at the age of 74.

Shepard grew up in Tyler, Texas, the daughter of John Edward Shepard and Dorothy Hortense (Simpson) Shepard. Her father coached high-school baseball and basketball after a career in semiprofessional baseball, while her mother taught American and English literature at the high school level and also directed plays. Both parents were champion competitive dancers. Her older sister, Von Gretchen, was crowned Miss Black America in 1974, and her younger sister, Cassandra Pia, works in the art industry. Shepard attended Emmett Scott High School, where she ranked in the top division of her class and received a $125 scholarship from the Zeta Phi Beta sorority. She competed in the Tyler Junior Miss pageant in 1968 and the Miss Denton pageant in 1971.

She went on to attend North Texas State University before earning a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Howard University, graduating in the top ten percent of her class. At Howard she was a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority and became a charter member of the D.C. Repertory Dance Company, an ensemble that originated as an experimental workshop. In February 1977, the company participated in the World Festival of Black Arts in Lagos, Nigeria.

Shepard began dancing professionally in 1971. In 1976 she performed at the Delacorte Summer Shakespearean Festival in New York and in Owens Song at the Kennedy Center. The following year she appeared as one of the dancers on the 1977 Academy Awards broadcast. Her Broadway career ran from 1976 to 1983 and encompassed five productions. She appeared in Bubbling Brown Sugar in 1976, followed by Comin' Uptown in 1979. In 1980 she performed in both Reggae and Your Arms Too Short to Box With God, a production she returned to in 1982. Her final Broadway credit was Porgy and Bess in 1983.

Beyond the stage, Shepard appeared in the 1978 film The Wiz and worked as a voice actor. She is perhaps most widely recognized for co-hosting Showtime at the Apollo from 1987 to 2002, a tenure of sixteen years. Her additional television work included hosting Live in Hollywood and portraying the singer Trelawney in Thunder in Paradise. In 2011 she co-starred in Single Black Female, a play that had its premiere in Wilmington, Delaware. Eight days after being honored at the International Women's Day Gospel Brunch at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles on March 8, 2026, Shepard died from a heart attack in that city.