Wanda Sykes

Wanda Yvette Sykes (born March 7, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, and writer.

Following a role with the National Security Agency (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.

One of her early TV appearances was Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam in the early 1990s, where she shared the stage with Adele Givens, J. B. Smoove, D. L. Hughley, Bernie Mac, & Bill Bellamy.

Working for the Hal Leonard publishing house, she edited a book entitled Polyrhythms – The Musician's Guide, by Peter Magadini.

Her first big break came when opening for Chris Rock at Caroline's Comedy Club.

She continued to perform at local venues while at the NSA until 1992, when she moved to New York City.

In 1997, she joined the writing team on The Chris Rock Show and also made many appearances on the show.

She was first recognized for her work as a writer on The Chris Rock Show, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1999.

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 the films 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-long Comedy 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 2004, Entertainment Weekly named Sykes as one of the 25 funniest people in America.

Sykes wrote Yeah, I Said It, a book of humorous observations on various topics, published in September 2004.

Aside from her television appearances, Sykes has also had a career in film, appearing in Monster-in-Law (2005), My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006), Evan Almighty (2007), and License to Wed (2007), as well as voicing characters in animated films such as Over the Hedge, Barnyard, Brother Bear 2 (all in 2006), Rio (2011), two sequels of the Ice Age franchise (2012–2016), and UglyDolls (2019).

Wanda Sykes was born in Portsmouth, Virginia.

Her family moved to Maryland when she was in the third grade.

Her mother, Marion Louise (née Peoples), worked as a banker, and her father, Harry Ellsworth Sykes, was a U.S. Army colonel employed at the Pentagon.

Cedric the Entertainer had been the first African American to become the featured entertainer in 2005.

She is also known for her recurring roles on CBS' The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006–10), and HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm (2001–).

In 2006, she landed a recurring role as Barb, opposite Julia Louis-Dreyfus, on the sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine; she became a series regular during the series' third season in 2008.

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's first HBO Comedy Special, entitled Wanda Sykes: Sick & Tired, premiered on October 14, 2006; it was nominated for a 2007 Emmy Award.

In 2008, she performed as part of Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Tour for LGBT rights.

In October 2008, 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".

In March 2009, Sykes became the host of a late-night talk show on Saturdays on Fox, The Wanda Sykes Show which was scheduled to premiere November 7, 2009.

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 first openly LGBT person to get the role.

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 ancestor, 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.

She received Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series nominations for her roles in ABC's Black-ish (2015–2022), and Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2020).

She currently stars in the Netflix original series The Upshaws (2021–), the HBO Max comedy series The Other Two (2019–2023), and The Good Fight (2021).

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."

Sykes attended Arundel High School in Gambrills, Maryland, and went on to graduate from Hampton University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing and became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha.

After college, her first job was as a contracting specialist at the National Security Agency, where she worked for five years.