Vanessa Lynn Williams was born on March 18,1963 and is an American singer, actress, and dancer.
44 Facts About Vanessa Williams
2.
Vanessa Williams gained recognition as the first African-American woman to receive the Miss America title when she was crowned Miss America 1984.
3.
Vanessa Williams resigned her title amid a media controversy surrounding nude photographs of her being published in Penthouse magazine.
4.
Thirty-two years later, Williams was offered a public apology during the Miss America 2016 pageant for the events.
5.
Vanessa Williams rebounded from the scandal with a successful career as a singer and actress.
6.
Vanessa Williams made her Broadway debut in 1994 with Kiss of the Spider Woman.
7.
Vanessa Williams starred in the revival of Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful in 2013, and the ensemble political farce POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive in 2022.
8.
Vanessa Williams is known for her appearances in television, with her best known roles being Wilhelmina Slater on Ugly Betty, for which she was nominated three times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series; and Renee Perry on Desperate Housewives.
9.
Vanessa Lynn Williams was born in the Bronx, New York City, with a birth announcement that read: "Here she is: Miss America".
10.
Vanessa Williams is of English, Welsh, Irish, Finnish, Italian, and Portuguese descent.
11.
Vanessa Williams was baptized at Our Lady of Grace Church in the Bronx.
12.
Vanessa Williams's mother played the organ at St Theresa's Church in Briarcliff Manor for weddings and at Mass, and Williams used to assist her mother by turning the pages of sheet music.
13.
Vanessa Williams attended Robert E Bell Middle School, as did her children years later.
14.
Vanessa Williams revealed that the shop and home economics teachers were still there when her children attended.
15.
Vanessa Williams was offered the Presidential Scholarship for Drama to attend Carnegie Mellon University during the college application period, but decided instead to attend Syracuse University on a different scholarship.
16.
Vanessa Williams stayed at Syracuse through her second year until she was crowned Miss America 1984 in September 1983.
17.
Vanessa Williams was the first African-American recipient of the Miss America title when she was crowned Miss America 1984 in September 1983.
18.
Vanessa Williams was pressured to relinquish her title and was succeeded by the first runner-up: Miss New Jersey 1983, Suzette Charles.
19.
Thirty-two years later in September 2015, when Vanessa Williams served as head judge for the Miss America 2016 pageant, former Miss America CEO Sam Haskell made a public apology to her for the events of 1984.
20.
Vanessa Williams first received public recognition for her musical abilities when she won the preliminary talent portion of the Miss America pageant with her rendition of "Happy Days Are Here Again".
21.
Four years later in 1988, Vanessa Williams released her debut album, The Right Stuff.
22.
Vanessa Williams performed the song live at the 1993 Grammy Awards Ceremony.
23.
In 1995, Vanessa Williams starred as Rose Alvarez in a television adaptation of the 1960 Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie and portrayed the nymph Calypso in the 1997 Hallmark Entertainment miniseries The Odyssey.
24.
In 2001, Vanessa Williams starred in the Lifetime cable movie about the life of Henriette DeLille, The Courage to Love and in 2003, Vanessa Williams read the narrative of Tempie Herndon Durham from the WPA slave narratives in the HBO documentary Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives.
25.
Vanessa Williams next joined the cast of Desperate Housewives for its seventh season, where she portrayed Renee Perry, an old college "frenemy" of Lynette Scavo.
26.
Vanessa Williams starred as Maxine in the VH1 television series Daytime Divas during its one season in 2017.
27.
Vanessa Williams received a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture for her portrayal of Teri Joseph for the 1997 feature film Soul Food.
28.
Vanessa Williams notably co-starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Eraser, Samuel L Jackson in the 2000 soft reboot of Shaft, the characters from Sesame Street in The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, and with Miley Cyrus in Hannah Montana: The Movie.
29.
Vanessa Williams began her career on stage in the 1985 production, One Man Band, as one of "the women".
30.
Vanessa Williams followed it in 1989 as "Laura" in Checkmates.
31.
In 2010, Vanessa Williams starred in a new Broadway musical revue entitled Sondheim on Sondheim, a look at Stephen Sondheim through his music, film and videotaped interviews.
32.
Vanessa Williams served as the host of the 1994 Essence Awards, co-host of Carnegie Hall Salutes the Jazz Masters: Verve Records at 50, host of the 1998 NAACP Image Awards, host of the 2002 documentary, It's Black Entertainment, host of The 6th Annual TV Land Awards in 2007, host of the 36th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in 2009, and finally host of the documentary Dreams Come True: A Celebration of Disney Animation.
33.
Vanessa Williams is a spokesmodel for Proactiv Solution, and was the first African-American spokesmodel for L'Oreal cosmetics in the 1990s.
34.
In 2018, Vanessa Williams returned as a spokesmodel for L'Oreal as part of their 'Age perfect' campaign alongside fellow ambassadors Helen Mirren, Julianne Moore and Jane Fonda.
35.
Vanessa Williams appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 2000 as a contestant, and on August 10,2009, as a celebrity guest during the show's tenth anniversary prime-time special editions, winning $50,000 for her charity.
36.
In 2020 Vanessa Williams was the winner of episode 2 of RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race, and donated her prize of $20,000 to the LBGTQ charity The Trevor Project.
37.
Vanessa Williams spoke candidly about having an abortion while she was in high school.
38.
Vanessa Williams is a practicing Catholic, something she spoke about on the ABC News program Focus on Faith with Fr.
39.
Vanessa Williams is partnered with Dress For Success, an organization that provides professional attire for low-income women seeking employment.
40.
Vanessa Williams is involved with The San Miquel Academy of Newburgh, a school for boys at risk.
41.
Vanessa Williams married Ramon Hervey II at St Francis Xavier Catholic Church in 1987 just a few years after giving up her Miss America crown, and gave birth to her first child at that time.
42.
Vanessa Williams married NBA basketball player Rick Fox in 1999.
43.
Vanessa Williams's daughter Jillian Hervey is an American singer, dancer and member of the group Lion Babe.
44.
Vanessa Williams received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on March 19,2007.