BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY
Wanda Sykes
| Wanda Sykes | |
|---|---|
Wanda Sykes at the 2010 GLAAD Media Awards
| |
| Born | March 7, 1964 Portsmouth, Virginia, U.S. |
| Spouse | Alex Niedbalski (2008–present)[1] |
| Children | Lucas Sykes Olivia Sykes |
| Website | Official website |
Wanda Sykes (born March 7, 1964) is an American writer, comedian, actress, and voice artist. She earned the 1999 Emmy Award for her writing on The Chris Rock Show. In 2004, Entertainment Weekly named Sykes as one of the 25 funniest people in America.[2]She is well known for her role as Barbara Baran on The New Adventures of Old Christine and for her appearances on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm.
In November 2009, The Wanda Sykes Show, her own late-night talkshow, premiered on Fox, airing Saturday nights, until it was cancelled in April 2010.[3][4] Sykes has also had a successful career in film, appearing in Monster-in-Law, My Super Ex-Girlfriend,Evan Almighty, and License to Wed, and voiced characters in Over the Hedge, Barnyard, Brother Bear 2, Rio, and Ice Age: Continental Drift.
Early life
Sykes was born in Portsmouth, Virginia and raised in the Washington, D.C., area. Her mother, Marion Louise (née Peoples), worked as a banker, and her father, Harry Ellsworth Sykes, was a US Army colonel employed at the Pentagon.[5] Sykes attended Arundel High School[6] in Gambrills, Maryland, and went on to graduate from Hampton University[6]where she earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. After college, her first job was as a contracting specialist at the National Security Agency (NSA),[6][7] where she worked for five years.[8]
Sykes' family history was researched for an episode of the 2012 PBS genealogy program Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr. Her ancestry was traced back to a 1683 court case involving her paternal ninth great-grandmother Elizabeth Banks, a free white woman and indentured servant, who gave birth to a biracial child Mary Banks fathered by a slave, who inherited her mother's free status. According to historian Ira Berlin, a specialist in the history of American slavery, the Sykes family history is "... the only such case that I know of in which it is possible to trace a black family rooted in freedom from the late 17th century to the present."[9]
Career
Not completely satisfied with her role with the NSA, Sykes began her stand-up career at a Coors Light Super Talent Showcase in Washington, DC, where she performed for the first time in front of a live audience in 1987.[8][10] She continued to hone her talents at local venues while at the NSA until 1992, when she moved to New York City.[8] Working for the Hal Leonard publishing house, she edited a book entitled "Polyrhythms - The Musician's Guide", by Peter Magadini.[11] Her first big break came when opening for Chris Rockat Caroline's Comedy Club.[8] In 1997, she joined the writing team on The Chris Rock Show and also made many appearances on the show.[10] The writing team was nominated for four Emmys, and in 1999, won for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Special. Since that time, she has appeared in such films as Pootie Tang and on TV shows such as Curb Your Enthusiasm. In 2003, she starred in her own short-lived Fox network sitcom, Wanda at Large. The same year, Sykes appeared in an hour-longComedy Central special, Tongue Untied. That network also ranked her No. 70 on its list of the 100 greatest all-time stand ups. She served as a correspondent for HBO's Inside the NFL, hosted Comedy Central's popular show Premium Blend, and voiced a recurring character named Gladys on Comedy Central's puppet show Crank Yankers. She also had a short-lived show on Comedy Central called Wanda Does It.
In addition to her film and television work, she is also an author. She wrote Yeah, I Said It, a book of humorous observations on various topics, published in September 2004.
In 2006, she landed a recurring role on the sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine; she became a series regular in the second season. She also guest starred in the Will & Grace episode "Buy, Buy Baby" in 2006. She provided voices for the 2006 films Over the Hedge, Barnyard, and Brother Bear 2. She had a part in My Super Ex-Girlfriend and after playing in Evan Almighty, had a bit part in License to Wed. Sykes' first HBO Comedy Special, entitled Wanda Sykes: Sick & Tired, premiered on October 14, 2006; it was nominated for a 2007 Emmy Award.[12] In 2008, she performed as part of Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Tour for LGBT rights.
In October 2008, Wanda Sykes appeared in a television ad for the Think Before You Speak Campaign, an advertising campaign by GLSEN aimed at curbing homophobic slang in youth communities. In the 30-second spot, she uses humor to scold a teenager for saying "that's so gay" when he really means "that is so bad."[13][14]
In March 2009, it was announced that Sykes would be the host of a new late-night talk show on Saturdays on Fox, The Wanda Sykes Show which was scheduled to premiere November 7, 2009.[15][16] In April 2009, she was named in Out magazine's "Annual Power 50 List", landing at number 35.
In May 2009, Sykes was the featured entertainer for the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner, becoming both the first African American woman and the firstopenly LGBT person to get the role. Cedric the Entertainer had been the first African American to become the featured entertainer in 2005. At this event, Sykes made controversial headlines as she responded to conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh's comments regarding President Barack Obama. Limbaugh, in reference to Obama's presidential agenda, had said "I hope he fails". In response, Sykes quipped: "I hope his [Limbaugh's] kidneys fail, how 'bout that? Needs a little waterboarding, that's what he needs."[17]
Her second comedy special, Wanda Sykes: I'ma Be Me premiered on HBO in October 2009.[16] November 2009 saw the premier of The Wanda Sykes Show, which starts with a monologue and continues with a panel discussion in a similar format to Bill Maher's shows Real Time with Bill Maher and Politically Incorrect.
She appeared as Miss Hannigan in a professional theatre production of Annie at The Media Theatre in Media, PA, a suburb 25 minutes southwest of Philadelphia. Her first appearance in a musical, she played the role from November 23 – December 12, 2010, and again from January 12–23, 2011.[16]
She voices the Witch in the Bubble Guppies episode "Bubble Puppy's Fin-tastic Fairlytale Adventure".
In May 2013, Sykes was a featured entertainer at Olivia Travel’s 40th anniversary Music & Comedy Festival in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.[18]
In 2013, Sykes appeared in eight episodes of Amazon's Alpha House, a political comedy series written by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau.[19] Sykes plays Rosalyn DuPeche, a Democrat Senator from Illinois and the next door neighbor of four Republican senators living together in a house on Capitol Hill. Sykes will also appear in Season Two, which is filming over the summer of 2014.
Personal life
Sykes was married to record producer Dave Hall from 1991 to 1998.[8] In November 2008, she publicly came out as gay while at a same-sex marriage rally in Las Vegas regarding Proposition 8.[8][20] Sykes had just married her partner Alex a month earlier, whom she met in 2006. The couple also became parents around the same time on October 25, 2008, when Alex gave birth to a pair of fraternal twins, daughter Olivia Lou and son Lucas Claude.[1]
Sykes only came out to her conservative mom Marion and dad Harry when she was 40, who both initially had difficulty accepting her homosexuality. They declined to attend her wedding with Alex, which led to a brief period of estrangement, but have since reconciled and are now proud grandparents to the couple's children.[21]
During a September 19, 2011 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Sykes announced that she had been diagnosed earlier in the year with ductal carcinoma in situ(DCIS). Although DCIS is a non-invasive "stage zero breast cancer", Sykes had elected to have a bilateral mastectomy in order to lower her chances of getting breast cancer.[22]
Sykes splits time living in both Los Angeles and Media, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia.[23]
Activism
Sykes has publicly expressed being devastated after California voters passed state Proposition 8. She said: "with the legislation that they passed, I can’t sit by and just watch. I just can’t do it."[8][24] She has continued to be active in same-sex marriage issues hosting events and emceeing fundraisers. She has also worked with PETA on promoting dog anti-chaining legislation in her home state.[25]
She has been an outspoken supporter of Detroit's Ruth Ellis Center after the organization's staff sent Sykes a letter asking her to visit during her 2010 tour's stop in Detroit.[26][27][28]
Awards
Sykes has been nominated for seven Primetime Emmys, with one win (in 1999) for "Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Special". In 2001, she won the American Comedy Award for "Outstanding Female Stand Up Comic". She won a Comedy Central Commie Award for "Funniest TV Actress in 2003".[29] In 2010 she won a GLAAD award for promoting a good image of equal rights for gays and lesbians.[30][31]
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Tomorrow Night | ||
| 2000 | Nutty Professor II: The Klumps | Chantal | |
| 2001 | Down to Earth | Wanda | |
| Pootie Tang | Biggie Shorty | ||
| 2005 | Monster-in-Law | Ruby | |
| 2006 | The Adventures of Brer Rabbit | Sister Moon | Direct-to-video Voice |
| Over the Hedge | Stella (skunk) | Voice Nominated - Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production | |
| Clerks II | Angry Customer | ||
| My Super Ex-Girlfriend | Carla Dunkirk | ||
| Barnyard | Bessy the Cow | Voice | |
| Brother Bear 2 | Innoko | Direct-to-video Voice | |
| CondomNation | Linda | ||
| 2007 | Evan Almighty | Rita | |
| License to Wed | Nurse Borman | uncredited | |
| 2011 | Rio | Chloe (Canada goose) | voice |
| The Muppets | Officer Ethel | Cameo, Deleted | |
| 2012 | Ice Age: Continental Drift | Granny | voice |
| 2013 | The Hot Flashes | Florine Clarkston |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997–2000 | The Chris Rock Show | Various Characters | 7 episodes |
| 1999 | Best of the Chris Rock Show | TV special | |
| 2001 | The Downer Channel | Various | 2 episodes |
| The Drew Carey Show | Christine Watson | 3 episodes | |
| 2001–2011 | Curb Your Enthusiasm | Wanda | 9 episodes |
| 2002–2003 | Crank Yankers | Gladys/Wanda/Gladys Murphy (voice) | 3 episodes |
| 2003 | MTV: Reloaded | The Oracle | TV film |
| Wanda at Large | Wanda Mildred Hawkins | 19 episodes | |
| Chappelle's Show | Herself | Episode: "The Best of Chappelle's Show: Volume 2 Mixtape" | |
| MADtv | Season 9 episode 903 | ||
| 2006 | Will & Grace | Cricket | Episode: "Buy, Buy Baby" |
| 2006–2010 | The New Adventures of Old Christine | Barbara "Barb" Baran | 67 episodes |
| 2007–2011 | Back at the Barnyard | Bessy the Cow (voice) | 50 episodes |
| 2009 | Wanda Sykes: I'ma Be Me[16] | Herself | HBO comedy special |
| White House Correspondents' Dinner | Herself (host) | TV special | |
| 2009–2010 | The Wanda Sykes Show | Herself | 21 episodes; also creator, writer, executive producer |
| 2011 | Drop Dead Diva | Judge | Episode: "Prom"2011 |
| 2011 | Bubble Guppies | The Witch (voice) | Episode: "Bubble Puppy's Fin-tastic Fairytale Adventure" |
| 2012 | Futurama | Bev the vending machine (voice) | Episode: "The Bots and the Bees"[32] |
| 2013 | The Simpsons | School Therapist/Counselor (voice) | Episode: "What Animated Women Want"[33] |
| Real Husbands of Hollywood | Wanda Sykes | 2 episodes | |
| 2013–present | Alpha House | Senator Rosalyn DuPeche | Recurring role |
Writer
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997–98 | The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show | Writer | 11 episodes |
| 1997-00 | The Chris Rock Show | Writer | Wrote 33 episodes Co-produced 14 episodes |
| 1998 | Comedy Central Presents | Herself and writer (as Wanda Sykes-Hall) | Episode: "Wanda Sykes-Hall" |
| 2001 | Best of the Chris Rock Show: Volume 2 | Writer | TV special |
| The Downer Channel | Writer | Wrote the first 2 episodes | |
| 2002 | The 74th Annual Academy Awards | Special material written by | Award show |
| 2002–03 | Premium Blend | Writer | 4 episodes/Stand-up |
| 2003 | Wanda Sykes: Tongue Untied | Writer | Documentary |
| Wanda at Large | Creator, writer and producer | 19 episodes | |
| 2004 | Wanda Does It | Creator, writer and executive producer | 6 episodes |
| 2006 | Wanda Sykes: Sick and Tired | Writer | Stand-up |
| 2009 | Wanda Sykes: I'ma Be Me[16] | Writer | Stand-up |
Discog
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Sick & Tired[34] | Image Entertainment |
Awards and nominations[
| Year | Award | Category | Nomination work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program | The Chris Rock Show | Nominated |
| 1999 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program | The Chris Rock Show | Won |
| 2000 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program | The Chris Rock Show | Nominated |
| 2001 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program | The Chris Rock Show | Nominated |
| 2001 | American Comedy Awards | Funniest Female Stand-Up Comic | Herself | Won |
| 2003 | Teen Choice Awards | Choice Comedian | Herself | Nominated |
| 2003 | Teen Choice Awards | Choice TV Actress - Comedy | Wanda at Large | Nominated |
| 2003 | Teen Choice Awards | Choice TV Breakout Star - Female | Wanda at Large | Nominated |
| 2004 | Satellite Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Series, Comedy or Musical | Wanda at Large | Nominated |
| 2004 | BET Comedy Awards | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series | Wanda at Large | Nominated |
| 2005 | BET Comedy Awards | Outstanding Vaudevillian in a Theatrical Film | Monster-in-Law | Won |
| 2005 | Image Awards | Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series | Curb Your Enthusiasm | Nominated |
| 2005 | People's Choice Awards | Favorite Funny Female Star | Herself | Nominated |
| 2006 | Image Awards | Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series | Curb Your Enthusiasm | Nominated |
| 2006 | Black Reel Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Monster-in-Law | Nominated |
| 2007 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special | Wanda Sykes: Sick and Tired | Nominated |
| 2007 | Annie Awards | Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production | Over the Hedge | Nominated |
| 2008 | People's Choice Awards | Favorite Funny Female Star | Herself | Nominated |
| 2009 | Image Awards | Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series | The New Adventures of Old Christine | Nominated |
| 2010 | GLAAD Media Awards | GLAAD Stephen F. Kolzak Award | Herself | Won |
| 2010 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special | Wanda Sykes: I'ma Be Me | Nominated |
| 2010 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Special | Wanda Sykes: I'ma Be Me | Nominated |
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