Jennifer Lewis

Jenifer Jeanette Lewis (born January 25, 1957 ) is an American actress.

Soon after she arrived in New York City, Lewis debuted on Broadway in a small role in Eubie (1979), the musical based on the work of Eubie Blake.

She next landed the role of Effie White in the workshop of the Michael Bennett–directed musical Dreamgirls, but when the show moved to Broadway, Bennett chose Jennifer Holliday for the role.

Lewis became a Harlette, a back-up singer for Bette Midler, which led to Lewis' first TV appearances on Midler's HBO specials.

She began her career appearing in Broadway musicals and worked as a back-up singer for Bette Midler before appearing in films Beaches (1988) and Sister Act (1992).

She was cast as a backup singer in the Otto Titsling production number in Midler's film Beaches (1988).

At the same time, Lewis was developing her nightclub act, The Diva Is Dismissed, an autobiographical comedy and music show in New York City cabarets.

She performed the show off-Broadway at the Public Theater.

After Lewis relocated to Los Angeles, she began appearing in television sitcoms, including Murphy Brown, Dream On, In Living Color, Roc, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper and Friends.

She also had a recurring role as Will Smith's Aunt Helen in the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from 1991 to 1996.

From 1992 to 1993, she played Dean Davenport in the sixth and final season of the NBC sitcom A Different World.

In 1992, Lewis was cast as one of the back-up singers to Whoopi Goldberg in the comedy film Sister Act.

The following year, Lewis played the mother of Tupac Shakur's character in the film Poetic Justice, and as Zelma Bullock, Tina Turner's mother, in the biopic What's Love Got to Do With It starring Angela Bassett.

Lewis has stated that she never auditioned to play Turner, but would have been thrilled to play the iconic singer.

Lewis is only one year older than Bassett.

For her performance, she received her first NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture nomination.

Lewis is known for playing roles of mothers in the films What's Love Got to Do With It (1993), Poetic Justice (1993), The Preacher's Wife (1996), The Brothers (2001), The Cookout (2004), Think Like a Man (2012) and in the sequel Think Like a Man Too (2014), Baggage Claim (2013) and The Wedding Ringer (2015), as well as in The Temptations miniseries (1998).

Lewis is known unofficially as "The Mother of Black Hollywood" (also the name of her memoir) given her frequent matriarchal film and television roles.

In 1994, she followed with other comedic supporting roles, including Mrs. Coleman, the Unemployment Office lady, in Renaissance Man and as Whoopi Goldberg's sister in Corrina, Corrina.

Additional film roles include Dead Presidents (1995), Cast Away (2000) and Hereafter (2010).

As a series regular, Lewis starred alongside Patricia Wettig in her short-lived legal drama Courthouse in 1995, playing Judge Rosetta Reide, the first main African American lesbian character on television.

In 1995, she was cast in maternal roles to Kadeem Hardison in Panther and to Larenz Tate in Dead Presidents.

In 1996, Lewis appeared as Theresa Randle's telephone sex line boss in the film Girl 6.

Later that year, she played Whitney Houston's character's mother in the film The Preacher's Wife, for which she received her second NAACP Image Award nomination.

She also had roles in The Mighty (1998), The Temptations miniseries (1998), Mystery Men (1999) and Blast from the Past (1999), and the leading role in the film Jackie's Back (1999).

On television, Lewis starred as Lana Hawkins in the Lifetime medical drama Strong Medicine from 2000 to 2006.

She also had recurring roles on sitcoms A Different World, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Girlfriends.

In 2000, Lewis had a supporting role in the adventure drama film Cast Away, directed by Robert Zemeckis.

In the same year, she began starring as Lana Hawkins on the Lifetime television medical drama Strong Medicine, for which she also performed the theme song.

The show ended in February 2006.

She also voiced Flo in Pixar's Cars franchise.

She also had a recurring role as Veretta Childs (Toni's mother) in the UPN sitcom Girlfriends.

She also provided the voice for Mama Odie in Disney's animated feature The Princess and the Frog (2009), and Flo in Pixar's Cars series.

In 2014, Lewis began starring as Ruby Johnson in the ABC comedy series Black-ish, for which she received two Critics' Choice Television Award nominations.

Lewis was born in Kinloch, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, to a nurse's aide mother, Dorothy, and a factory worker father.

Lewis is the youngest of seven children.

She sang in her church choir at the age of five.

She attended Kinloch High School and then college at Webster University in Webster Groves, Missouri.

She received an honorary degree from Webster in 2015.

After college, Lewis moved to New York.