Sharon Catherine Brown

Sharon Catherine Brown, also known as Sharon Catherine Blanks, is an American actress of stage, film, and television born on January 11, 1962, in New York, New York. Her father is actor Johnny Brown, who portrayed Nathan Bookman on the 1970s sitcom Good Times, and her mother, June Brown, worked as a studio manager. Brown has a brother, John Brown Jr. She attended Hollywood High School, where she performed in theatrical productions including the role of Mame Dennis in Mame and Ruth Sherwood in Wonderful Town.

Brown's Broadway career spans from 1968 to 2025 and includes starring roles in The Notebook, Jekyll & Hyde, and Days of Wine and Roses, as well as appearances in Dreamgirls and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. On Broadway and in touring productions of Dreamgirls, she played Effie, and she also portrayed Violet in the musical Maggie Flynn and served as narrator in productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Her touring credits additionally include The Wiz, Rent, and Jekyll & Hyde. In 1987, Brown received a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Non-Resident Production for her work in the touring version of Dreamgirls.

Her film work includes A Chorus Line (1985), For Keeps (1988), Sister Act 2 (1993), What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), Blues Brothers 2000 (1998), and Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999). On television, Brown played Daisy on the CBS soap opera Love of Life in 1971 and originated the role of Chantel on the NBC soap Generations, which she held from 1989 to 1990. In 1981, she portrayed a young Louise in a flashback episode of The Jeffersons titled "And the Doorknobs Shined Like Diamonds." Her episodic television credits include Good Times, A Different World, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Brown married Billy Blanks Jr., son of Tae Bo fitness personality Billy Blanks. Together they taught at fitness studios in Sherman Oaks, California, and developed a series of fitness videos. In 2014, Blanks presented the fitness program on Shark Tank and accepted a deal. The couple have an adopted son named Elijah and divorced in 2016.