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Sherri Shepherd
Shepherd answering audience questions at a live taping of "The View", June 11, 2008
Born	Sherri Evonne Shepherd April 22, 1967 (1967-04-22) (age 42) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Actress Comedienne Television personality
Years active	1995–present
Known for	Co-hosting on The View
Spouse(s)	Jeff Tarpley (?-2007)
Children	Jeffrey Charles Tarpley
Website sherrishepherd.com

Sherri Evonne Shepherd (born April 22, 1967) is an American comedienne, actress, and television personality. She is one of five co-hosts on the ABC daytime talkshow, The View. As an actress, she is perhaps best known for her role on the sitcom Less Than Perfect and supporting film roles, most notably as Cornrows in the 2009 Oscar-nominated film Precious.

Early life

Shepherd was born in Chicago, Illinois to Lawrence A. Shepherd (1943-) and Laverene Shepherd (1941-2000), as the eldest of three sisters, and was raised as a Jehovah's Witness. At age 11, her family moved to Hoffman Estates, a Chicago suburb. She attended Winston Churchill Elementary School and Eisenhower Junior High School of Community Consolidated School District 54 and Hoffman Estates High School of District 211.

Career

Shepherd worked a day job as a legal secretary while doing stand-up comedy at night. Her first TV role was on the show, Cleghorne!, starring former Saturday Night Live cast member Ellen Cleghorne. Three years later, Shepherd pursued acting and stand-up comedy full-time, working again as a legal secretary for a day job. She had guest and recurring roles on Everybody Loves Raymond and Living Single as well as regular roles on Suddenly Susan and The Jamie Foxx Show. Perhaps her most successful role prior to The View was playing the main character of Ramona Platt (2002-2006) on the comedy Less than Perfect. She is currently starring in Lifetime Television's Sherri, a sitcom about Shepherd's life.

Shepherd has branched out to film, with roles in Guess Who, Beauty Shop, Cellular "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" and Precious. She still performs stand-up comedy at Los Angeles area clubs like the Comedy Store and the Laugh Factory, although she lives in New York. She has also been a frequent and popular guest on Ellen DeGeneres's syndicated daytime talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, for which she holds a record for being on the show the greatest number of times. She currently has a recurring role on 30 Rock as "Angie Jordan."

Co-host on The View

In 2006, Sherri Shepherd became a frequent guest co-host on ABC's, The View. Shepherd eventually became a permanent co-host on Monday September 10, 2007.

Shepherd co-hosted the 35th Daytime Emmy Awards on June 20, 2008. Her fellow co-host was All My Children star Cameron Mathison. Shepherd was nominated for her first Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host.

On May 14, 2009, Shepherd was nominated again for her second Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host, when nominations for 36th Daytime Emmy Awards were announced on the Today Show. Shepherd won her first Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host that year.

Criticized statements

Shepherd was criticized heavily after the September 18, 2007 broadcast of The View,^[1] in which she stated that she didn't "believe in evolution. Period." Co-host Whoopi Goldberg asked her, "Is the world flat?" She first responded, "I don't know" and expanded that she "never thought about it." Shepherd continued that it was more important to her that she thought about how she was "going to feed [her] child." Barbara Walters replied by pointing out, "You can do both." However, Shepherd then went on to quote scripture.^[2] Shepherd later referred to her statement as a "brain fart" brought on by nerves, and said that she still isn't sure the earth is round.^[3]

Similar criticism erupted after the December 4, 2007 broadcast of The View when, during a discussion initiated by Joy Behar about Epicurus, Shepherd attempted to assert that Christians existed in classical Greece, and that the Greeks threw them to the lions. When confronted on this point, she further claimed that "Jesus came first" (before Greeks and Romans) and stated, "I don't think anything predated Christians."^[4][5]

Shepherd also garnered ridicule after admitting to never voting because she just "never knew the dates or anything"; she stated, "I've never voted for anything in my life."^[6][7] Shepherd did, however, vote for Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential election. She also said she "had no idea how the machine worked!".

Personal life

Shepherd was married to comedian Jeff Tarpley (Jeff T. Aware), with whom she had a son, Jeffrey Charles (born April 22, 2005). They divorced in 2006 after she discovered he was having an affair, an event that inspired her sitcom Sherri.^[3] Although she was raised a Jehovah's Witness, Shepherd became an evangelical Christian after she discovered her husband's infidelities. She has publicly said she intends to remain celibate until marrying again.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

Daytime Emmy Award

• 2008 nomination for Outstanding Talk Show Host(s) (The View)
• 2009 Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host(s) (The View)

Screen Actors Guild Awards

• 2010 Nomination for Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture Precious (Shared with rest of cast)

Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards

• 2009 nomination for Best Ensemble, Precious (Shared with rest of cast)

Boston Society of Film Critics Awards

• 2009 Award for Best Ensemble Cast (Precious)

Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards

• 2010 nomination for Best Acting Ensemble, Precious (Shared with rest of cast)

Black Reel Awards

• 2010 nomination for Best Ensemble Cast, Precious (Shared with rest of cast)

BET Comedy Awards

• 2005 nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Less than Perfect)

41st NAACP Image Awards

• 2010 nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series (Sherri)
• 2010 nomination for Outstanding Talk Series (The View)

Gracie Awards

• 2010 Award for Leading Actress in a Comedy Series (Sherri)

References

External links

• Official site
• Sherri Shepherd at the Internet Movie Database