NeNe Leakes

Linnethia Monique Leakes, born December 13, 1967, in Queens, New York, is an American actress, television personality, businesswoman, author, and fashion designer. Raised in Athens, Georgia, after being sent to live with an aunt alongside one of her four siblings, Leakes attended Clarke Central High School in Athens before enrolling at Morris Brown College in Atlanta for two years. She built a career spanning reality television, scripted acting, Broadway, fashion, and entrepreneurship.

Leakes first gained widespread recognition as an original cast member of Bravo's The Real Housewives of Atlanta, which premiered in 2008. She remained a main cast member for the show's first seven seasons before announcing her departure in June 2015, though she appeared in a supporting capacity during season eight. She later returned as a full-time cast member for seasons ten through twelve, spanning 2017 to 2020, before announcing she would not return for the thirteenth season. Following her exit from Bravo, she was announced in January 2026 as a guest on the fifth season of The Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip, set to appear during the Atlanta portion of the trip.

Her scripted television work includes a recurring role as synchronized swim coach and Olympic bronze-medalist Roz Washington on the Fox comedy-drama Glee, a part she was cast in by Ryan Murphy beginning in the show's third season. She also served as a series regular on the NBC sitcom The New Normal, playing Rocky Rhoades, until the show was cancelled in 2013. Earlier in her career, she landed a minor role in the 2003 film The Fighting Temptations, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyoncé, though none of her scenes appeared in the final cut. Additional television appearances include guest-hosting stints on Anderson Live and The Talk, participation in season eleven of NBC's Celebrity Apprentice in 2011, and competing in season eighteen of ABC's Dancing with the Stars in 2014, where she was paired with professional dancer Tony Dovolani before being eliminated in seventh place during Week 7. She was also a regular panelist on ABC's revival of the game show To Tell the Truth and played the Mistress of Sensuality in the Las Vegas resident production Cirque du Soleil: Zumanity.

Leakes made her Broadway debut on November 25, 2014, taking on the role of Madame in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, a production that closed on January 3, 2015. The following year, in November 2015, she was cast as Matron "Mama" Morton in Chicago on Broadway, a role she played for four weeks. Following her co-authorship of the book Never Make the Same Mistake Twice with Denene Millner after the first season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, she released a song titled "Come and Get This Hunni" in April 2020. In March 2024, she starred in the Lifetime film Hunting Housewives alongside Denise Richards, Melyssa Ford, and Kym Johnson-Herjavec.

Beyond performance, Leakes founded NeNe Leakes Entertainment, a television production company responsible for the Bravo spin-off I Dream of NeNe: The Wedding, which premiered on September 17, 2013, and was produced alongside True Entertainment. In July 2014, she launched the Nene Leakes Collection through the Home Shopping Network. She opened the first SWAGG Boutique in Duluth, Georgia, in November 2017, later expanding the brand to the MGM National Harbor in Maryland and to Miami Beach, though both the Duluth location and the Maryland location subsequently closed. In May 2021, she opened the Linnethia Lounge, named after her birth name, in Duluth, Georgia, where performers including KeKe Wyatt and Tamar Braxton have appeared. In March 2016, she announced a one-woman comedy tour called "So Nasty, So Rude," which launched in April of that year with numerous sold-out dates.

Leakes was married to Gregg Leakes, from whom she separated in 2010 and divorced in September 2011. The two became engaged again in January 2013 and remarried on June 22, 2013, at the InterContinental Buckhead Hotel in Atlanta, with Bravo documenting the wedding planning and ceremony for I Dream of NeNe: The Wedding. Gregg Leakes was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer, which Leakes disclosed in June 2018. He was announced to be cancer-free in May 2019, but the cancer recurred, and he died on September 1, 2021, at the age of 66. In April 2022, Leakes filed a federal lawsuit against NBCUniversal, Bravo, production companies True Entertainment and Truly Original, and producer Andy Cohen, alleging violations of federal employment and anti-discrimination laws. She dismissed the action in August 2022.