Vanessa Williams
Birthday: Born in 1963-05-12 in New York City, New York, USA
Deathday: Alive
Vanessa Estelle Williams (sometimes professionally credited as Vanessa A. Williams) is an American actress and producer. She is best known for her roles as Maxine Joseph–Chadway in the Showtime drama series, Soul Food (2000–04), for which she received NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series, and as Rhonda Blair in the first season of the Fox prime time soap opera, Melrose Place (1992–93). She is also known as Nino Brown's feisty gun moll, Keisha in the 1991 crime drama film, New Jack City and as Anne-Marie McCoy in the first and fourth of the Candyman films. Though not related, she is sometimes confused with American actress, singer, and former Miss America 1984, Vanessa L. Williams. Both women were also, coincidentally, born in New York in the same year. In addition, Vanessa A. Williams starred in the television soap opera, Soul Food, while Vanessa L. Williams starred in the original film.
TV Credits
Malcolm & Eddie
Character:
Malcolm and Eddie are as different as one can imagine. Nevertheless, they're best friends who manage to be roommates as well as co-workers and not kill each other....
Law & Order
Character: Vera
In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until someone is taken into custody. The district attorney's office then builds a case to convict the perpetrator by proving the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Working together, these expert teams navigate all sides of the complex criminal justice system to make New York a safer place....
The Pretender
Character: Denise Clements
Raised in a secret facility built for experimenting on children, Jarod is a genius who can master any profession and become anyone he has to be. When he realizes as an adult that he's actually a prisoner and his captors are not as benevolent as he's been told, he breaks out. While trying to find his real identity, Jarod helps those he encounters and tries to avoid the woman sent to retrieve him....
The Cosby Show
Character: Jade
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992. The show focuses on the Huxtable family, an upper middle-class African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York....
Cold Case
Character: Crystal Stacy (2007)
The Philadelphia homicide squad's lone female detective finds her calling when she is assigned cases that have never been solved. Detective Lilly Rush combines her natural instincts with the updated technology available today to bring about justice for all the victims she can....
Murder One
Character:
Theodore 'Teddy' Hoffman is a highly-regarded defense attorney in a prestigious Los Angeles law firm. Having successfully defended the wealthy but suspicious Richard Cross in a much-publicised murder trial, he is now involved in the defense of Neil Avedon, a famous young actor who has been suffering from severe drug and alcohol problems - and has been charged with the murder for which Cross was acquitted....
Between Brothers
Character:
Between Brothers is an American television situation comedy centered around four middle-class African American men in their late twenties, living in Chicago....
The Steve Harvey Show
Character: Nina
Down on his luck and out of money, former R&B star Steve Hightower lands a music teacher gig at an inner-city Chicago school. Showing who's in charge with his unorthodox approach, Steve discovers a new groove at Washington High School....
Living Single
Character:
Living Single is an American television sitcom that aired for five seasons on the Fox network from August 22, 1993, to January 1, 1998. The show centered on the lives of six friends who share personal and professional experiences while living in a Brooklyn brownstone. Throughout its run, Living Single became one of the most popular African-American sitcoms of its era, ranking among the top five in African-American ratings in all five seasons. The series was produced by Yvette Lee Bowser's compa...
Melrose Place
Character: Rhonda
Follow the lives of a group of young adults living in a brownstone apartment complex on Melrose Place, in Los Angeles, California....
Total Recall 2070
Character:
Total Recall 2070 is a science fiction television series first broadcast in 1999 on the Canadian television channel CHCH-TV and later the same year on the American Showtime channel. It was later syndicated in the United States with some editing to remove scenes of nudity, violence and strong language. The series was inspired by the 1990 film Total Recall, based on Philip K. Dick's short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale", and by Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, with a...
Chicago Hope
Character:
Chicago Hope is an American medical drama television series, created by David E. Kelley. It ran on CBS from September 18, 1994, to May 4, 2000. The series is set in a fictional private charity hospital in Chicago, Illinois. The show is set to return in the fall of 2013 on TVGN in reruns....
Buddies
Character:
Two pals---one black, one white---go into business over the protests of their elders, who worry about their racial differences. But the friends just make light of them as they try to get their small company off the ground....
The Wendy Williams Show
Character:
Radio personality Wendy Williams is the host to her own live syndicated talk show. Wendy injects her television series with the same style that characterizes her radio show, and divides on-air time between probing celebrity interviews and advice-giving to audience members....
American Horror Stories
Character: Dr. Eleanor Berger
An anthology series of stand alone episodes delving into horror myths, legends and lore....
The Flash
Character: Francine West
After being struck by lightning, CSI investigator Barry Allen awakens from a nine-month coma to discover he has been granted the gift of super speed. Teaming up with S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry takes on the persona of The Flash, the Fastest Man Alive, to protect his city....
A Luv Tale
Character: Candice
Taylor, Candice, Aklia, and Tammy's journeys as queer women may look different, but as they cross paths in Harlem, they help each other untangle life's complexities and be their authentic selves....
LIVE with Kelly and Mark
Character:
A morning talk show with A-list celebrity guests, top-notch performances and one-of-a-kind segments that are unrivaled on daytime television, plus spontaneous, hilarious and unpredictable talk....
Soul Food
Character: Maxine Chadway
Soul Food: The Series is a television drama that aired Wednesday nights on Showtime from June 28, 2000 to May 26, 2004. Created by filmmaker George Tillman, Jr. and developed for television by Felicia D. Henderson, Soul Food is based upon Tillman's childhood experiences growing up in Wisconsin, and is a continuation of his successful 1997 film of the same name. Having aired for 74 episodes, it is the longest running drama with a predominantly black cast in the history of North American prime-tim...
9-1-1
Character: Claudette Collins
Explore the high-pressure experiences of police officers, paramedics and firefighters who are thrust into the most frightening, shocking and heart-stopping situations. These emergency responders must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving the problems in their own lives....
Phineas and Ferb
Character: Flight Attendant (voice)
Each day, two kindhearted suburban stepbrothers on summer vacation embark on some grand new project, which annoys their controlling sister, Candace, who tries to bust them. Meanwhile, their pet platypus plots against evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz....
Murder One
Character: Lila Marquette
Theodore 'Teddy' Hoffman is a highly-regarded defense attorney in a prestigious Los Angeles law firm. Having successfully defended the wealthy but suspicious Richard Cross in a much-publicised murder trial, he is now involved in the defense of Neil Avedon, a famous young actor who has been suffering from severe drug and alcohol problems - and has been charged with the murder for which Cross was acquitted....
The Cosby Show
Character: Cheryl
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992. The show focuses on the Huxtable family, an upper middle-class African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York....
40 and Single
Character: Bertha Brown
A bisexual, mixed race, single bridal fashion designer maneuvers life and business in post colonial Africa....
Movie Credits
A Rich Christmas
Character: Aggie Maggy / Madison
Spoiled socialite will learn a lesson after her father asks her to work in a family homeless center....
Flirting with Forty
Character: Kristine
A divorcee has a passionate affair with a much younger surfing instructor in Hawaii....
New Jack City
Character: Keisha
A gangster, Nino, is in the Cash Money Brothers, making a million dollars every week selling crack. A cop, Scotty, discovers that the only way to infiltrate the gang is to become a dealer himself....
Welcome to the Christmas Family Reunion
Character: Eve Christmas
Event planner Amy helps rising singer Tiffanie Christmas plan her holiday family reunion. Along the way Amy must navigate some challenging family dynamics, especially among Tiffanie's aunts as well as her own growing feelings for Tiffanie's cousin, Calvin. Will she be able to pull off an amazing Christmas family reunion?...
Candyman
Character: Anne-Marie McCoy
The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth....
Punks
Character: Jennifer
The life and times of a group of twentysomething black gay men living in West Hollywood....
Mid-Century
Character: Beverly Gordon
A husband and wife's weekend in a mid-century modern vacation rental turns deadly when the husband discovers the owner is a psychopath with a backyard of buried secrets and designs on his wife....
Ice Spiders
Character: Dr. April Sommers
When a young ski team training for the Olympics arrives at the remote and isolated Lost Mountain Ski Resort to focus on training, they're thrilled to find a retired Olympic skier is there to help them train. But their plans are halted when a scientist working at a nearby government lab arrives with the horrifying news that a top secret Government project has produced giant spiders and they have escaped, killing and eating everything in sight....
Imagine That
Character: Lori Strother
A financial executive who can't stop his career downspiral is invited into his daughter's imaginary world, where solutions to his problems await....
Men, Money & Gold Diggers
Character: Sandra Winslow
Caleb Peterson (Je'Caryous Johnson) has it all - a great job, plenty of money, and a fine fiancée in former model Paisley Terrell (Patrice Fisher). They're all set to get married just as soon as she signs a prenuptial agreement, but there's just one problem... "Paisley don't do pre-nups!" As tempers flare and emotions run high, what began as a romantic proposal quickly escalates into an all-out battle between Men, Money, and Gold Diggers!...
Drop Squad
Character: Mali
Controversial film about an underground organization that kidnaps and 'deprograms' African Americans who sell out or deny their cultural heritage. Spike Lee is the Executive Producer....
Black Listed
Character: J.W.
Alan Chambers (Townsend) is a lawyer and sick of his job. He corrals his friends into forming a vigilante group. Everyone goes along with it at first, until it turns sour and innocent people start dying, and Alan is the only one left standing....
Love on a Two Way Street
Character: Gloria
Regina McKenzie struggles with still living at home with her parents, juggling questionable career choices, and dating the wrong men. Love on a Two Way Street is a live stage play event that covers the entire emotional spectrum....
Cruel Encounters
Character: Corynne
After the founder of a huge holding company dies in a mysterious helicopter crash, his wife, son and daughter jockey for the reins of his company in a struggle that involves deception, intrigue and murder....
Black Girl, Erupted
Character: Cassandra Cole
After a series of setbacks, high-achieving lawyer Reina must learn how to handle her mental health before her emotional outbursts destroy her career and her relationships....
Raising Izzie
Character: Tonya
Gertie and Izzie are two young girls on their own. Abandoned by their father and orphaned by their mother, they are doing the best they can to stay in school, stay undetected and stay together. With assistance from their mother before her passing, the girls are financially prepared to sustain themselves for some time. Gertie, 14, takes seriously, her charge to raise her younger sister Izzie, 10, alone. Greg and Tonya are a couple whose love for one another radiates and for some time now, they ha...
Happy to Be Nappy and Other Stories of Me
Character: Self (voice)
Today there are more reasons than ever for families to explore and celebrate diversity. Our ever-expanding world is full of differences in abilities, socioeconomic backgrounds, family structures, religious faiths, interests and cultures. This documentary introduces your family to children who are not only celebrating how they are unique, but who are also learning from and appreciating the differences in others....
Angie's Cure
Character: Carla
A traumatized rape victim finds therapy in a most disturbing way....
Our America
Character: Sandra Williams
The true story of two African-American teen radio reporters and their documentary investigation of a notorious child murder....
I Left My Girlfriend for Regina Jones
Character: Rebecca
A man in a committed relationship turns his love life upside-down when he accepts a $50,000 bet about getting a date with his celebrity crush....
Incognito
Character: Wilhelmina Hunter
A young socialite hires a bodyguard to protect her when an ex-convict begins stalking her....
Mother
Character: Donna
A neurotic, twice-divorced sci-fi writer moves back in with his mother to solve his personal problems....
Thriller
Character: Mrs. Walker
Years after a childhood prank goes horribly wrong, a clique of South Central LA teens find themselves terrorized during Homecoming weekend by a killer hell-bent on revenge....
Playing with Fire
Character: Riana Roberts
A woman (Vanessa Williams) tries to save her sister (Tangi Miller), who stole a priceless African statue with her lover....
One Fine Christmas
Character: Susan
The families on Christmas Street have been so busy with their day-to-day lives that they lose sight of the importance of family during the holiday season....
Candyman
Character: Anne-Marie McCoy
Anthony and his partner move into a loft in the now gentrified Cabrini-Green. After a chance encounter with an old-timer exposes Anthony to the true story behind Candyman, he unknowingly opens a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifying wave of violence....
Crossed the Line
Character: Juice
A young woman refuses to bow down to the local criminal kingpin who wants to take control of her late mother's flower shop in order to run drugs. However, when he crosses the line, she and her siblings seek revenge....
Sugar Mommas
Character: Lynn
Sisters Sheila and Lynn have little in common except their love for sweets. In need of a change, they partner with their close friend Tommi to open a bakery....
Like Mike
Character: Pharmacist
Calvin and his friends, who all live in an orphanage, find old shoes with the faded letters MJ connected to a powerline. One stormy night, they go to get the shoes when Calvin and the shoes are struck by lightning. Calvin now has unbelievable basketball powers and has the chance to play for the NBA....
Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story
Character: Lucille
Follows the successful career of Jackson as well as her unique friendship and devotion to Martin Luther King Jr. and her unsung contribution to the Civil Rights Movement....