Vanessa A Williams

Life and career

Williams was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. In an ABC News interview, she stated that she can trace her ancestry back to Georgia and Virginia. After high school she went on to get a bachelor's degree in theater and business management from Marymount Manhattan College. In 1993, Williams met Andre Wiseman and they began dating, then married in Stuyvesant, New York. They have one son together. She is the cousin of former 106 and park host Free Marie.

Williams later went to acting in films and television, becoming known simply as "Vanessa Williams". In the area of acting, the two ran into name conflict when Screen Actors Guild rules prohibited duplicate stage naming. Vanessa A. had registered the name "Vanessa Williams" first, so as a compromise, the former Miss America was occasionally credited as "Vanessa L. Williams" in acting credits. The Screen Actors Guild eventually took the issue to arbitration and decided that both actresses could use the professional name "Vanessa Williams".

Television

Williams began her acting career in 1989, appearing in episodes of The Cosby Show and Law & Order. In 1992, she was cast as Rhonda Blair, first and only black regular character, in the Fox prime time soap opera, Melrose Place. She was written off after only one season for lack of direction. "I think they didn't make the effort to equip themselves [to write for a black character], either by hiring a black writer or asking me things," - said Williams later. She later had guest starring roles on NYPD Blue and Living Single, before was cast as series regular in the ABC legal drama, Murder One (1995-1996) created by Steven Bochco. She received her first nomination an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance on show. In 1996, Williams had a recurring role as Dr. Grace Carr in the CBS medical drama series, Chicago Hope, for which she received NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series nomination.

In 2000, Williams was cast as Maxine Chadway in the Showtime drama series Soul Food, a continuation of his successful 1997 film of the same name. Two other lead played by Nicole Ari Parker and Malinda Williams. In the 1997 film Vanessa L. Williams played the leading role of Teri Joseph, and Vivica A. Fox played Maxine. For her performance, Williams won NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series in 2003, and received three additional nominations. The series aired to 2004 and went to be the longest running drama with a predominantly black cast in the history of American prime-time television.

After Soul Food, Williams had guest starring roles on Cold Case, Knight Rider and Lincoln Heights. In 2015, she was cast in a recurring role of Iris West’s mother in The CW drama series, The Flash. In October 2016, it was announced she was cast in the role of Valerie Grant on the NBC soap opera, Days of Our Lives.

Film

In film, Williams is best known for playing Keisha in the 1991 crime thriller New Jack City opposite Wesley Snipes and Ice T. She is also known for playing Anne-Marie McCoy in the 1992 horror Candyman opposite Tony Todd and Virginia Madsen. The following years she had small parts in Drop Squad (1994), Mother (1996), Punks (2000), Like Mike (2002), and Imagine That (2009) alongside Soul Food co-star Nicole Ari Parker. Williams is also has starred in a number of made for television movies, include Emmy Award-nominated performance in Our America (2002). She also had roles in a several smaller productions in recent years.