Phylicia Rashad is an American actress, singer and producer.
36 Facts About Phylicia Rashad
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Phylicia Rashad is dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University and best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the sitcom The Cosby Show which earned her Emmy Award nominations in 1985 and 1986.
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Phylicia Rashad was dubbed "The Mother of the Black Community" at the 2010 NAACP Image Awards.
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In 2004, Rashad became the first black actress to win the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, which she won for her role in the revival of A Raisin in the Sun.
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In 2022, Phylicia Rashad won her second Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in Dominique Morisseau's Skeleton Crew.
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Phylicia Rashad won a NAACP Image Award when she reprised her A Raisin in the Sun role in the 2008 television adaptation.
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Phylicia Rashad has appeared in the films For Colored Girls, Good Deeds, Creed, and Creed II.
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Phylicia Rashad Ayers-Allen was born on June 19,1948, in Houston, Texas.
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Phylicia Rashad's mother, Vivian Ayers, is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated artist, poet, playwright, scholar, and publisher.
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Phylicia Rashad played a Munchkin in The Wiz for three and a half years.
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Phylicia Rashad met Willis while they were both cast in The Wiz.
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Phylicia Rashad won the 2004 Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a Play for A Raisin in the Sun, tying with Viola Davis for the play Intimate Apparel.
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Phylicia Rashad was nominated again for a Tony the following year, for her performance in Gem of the Ocean.
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In 2007, Phylicia Rashad made her directorial debut with the Seattle Repertory Theatre's production of August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean.
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In 2008, Phylicia Rashad starred on Broadway as Big Mama in an all African-American production of Tennessee Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by her sister Debbie Allen.
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Phylicia Rashad appeared alongside stage veterans James Earl Jones and Anika Noni Rose, as well as film actor Terrence Howard, who made his Broadway debut as Brick.
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Phylicia Rashad returned to directing August Wilson's work in early 2014, when she led a revival of Wilson's Fences, at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey.
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Phylicia Rashad continued to focus on Wilson's work, including a well-received production of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, which she directed at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in late 2016.
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From March 17 to May 1,2016, Phylicia Rashad played the lead role of Shelah in Tarell Alvin McCraney's play Head of Passes at The Public Theater.
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Phylicia Rashad joined the cast of the ABC soap opera One Life to Live to play publicist Courtney Wright in 1983.
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Phylicia Rashad is best known for the role of attorney Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show.
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In 1985, Phylicia Rashad co-hosted the NBC telecast of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with Pat Sajak and Bert Convy.
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Phylicia Rashad played a role in the pre-show of the Dinosaur ride at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom theme park as Dr Helen Marsh, the head of the Dino Institute.
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Phylicia Rashad played "Kill Moves"' wealthy mother on Everybody Hates Chris on December 9,2007.
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Phylicia Rashad returned to the role in 2008, in the episode "Christmas Joy".
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In February 2008, Phylicia Rashad portrayed Lena Younger in the television film adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun, directed by Kenny Leon.
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In November 2010, Phylicia Rashad featured as Gilda in the ensemble cast in the Tyler Perry film For Colored Girls, based on the play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange.
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Also in 2012, Phylicia Rashad played Clairee Belcher in the remake of Steel Magnolias.
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In 2016, Phylicia Rashad was cast as a recurring guest star in the role of Diana DuBois in the third season of the Lee Daniels-produced Empire television series on Fox.
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In 2017, Rashad portrayed Bishop Yvette A Flunder, pastor of The City of Refuge Church in San Francisco, Calif.
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In 2020, Phylicia Rashad provided the voice of Libba Gardner, Joe Gardner's mother, in Pixar's Soul.
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In May 2021, Rashad was appointed as dean of Howard University's Chadwick A Boseman College of Fine Arts.
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Phylicia Rashad married Victor Willis in 1978; they had met during the run of The Wiz.
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Phylicia Rashad married a third time, to Ahmad Rashad on December 14,1985.
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Phylicia Rashad was a former NFL wide receiver and sportscaster.
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Phylicia Rashad proposed to her during a pregame show for a nationally televised Thanksgiving Day football game between the New York Jets and the Detroit Lions on November 28,1985.