Kenan Thompson
Thompson in November 2007
Born	(1978-05-10) May 10, 1978 (age 34) Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Occupation	Actor/Comedian
Years active	1994–present
Spouse	Christina Evangeline (2011 – present)
Website
www.kenanthompson.net

Kenan Thompson (born May 10, 1978) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his work as a cast member of NBC's long-running sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, as well for his starring roles in the films Good Burger and Fat Albert, his portrayal of Kenan Rockmore on the Nickelodeon sitcom Kenan & Kel, and as an original cast member of the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series All That. He ranks at #88 on VH1's 100 Greatest Teen Stars. Throughout the 1990s, he frequently collaborated with fellow comedian Kel Mitchell, and the two are cultural icons for the millennial generation.

Early life and career[link]

He was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Fletcher and Elizabeth Ann Thompson. He has one sibling, Kerwin Thompson. He began acting at age 15, appearing in the school play The Gingerbread Duck.^[1] One of his earliest roles was as an entertainment reporter for CNN's "Real News for Kids",^[2] and he would go on to star in All That, and Kenan & Kel.^[2] While Kenan attended Tri-Cities High School, a Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School in East Point, Georgia, he began filming his first movie, D2: The Mighty Ducks.

Film and television career[link]

Kenan has starred in several films including Good Burger, based on the All That sketch of the same name, and Fat Albert, in which he played the title character. He has also had supporting roles in the movies Heavyweights, D2: The Mighty Ducks, Love Don't Cost a Thing, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, My Boss's Daughter, and Snakes on a Plane. Kenan had a recurring role on The Steve Harvey Show as Junior, with co-star Kel Mitchell. Recently, he returned to Nickelodeon for the show The Mighty B! as the voice of Rocky Rhodes.

In 2009, Thompson was a regular voice actor in the Fox cartoon series, Sit Down, Shut Up, portraying Sue Sezno, who, as evidenced by her last name, always says no.^[3] The series premiered on April 19, 2009,^[3] but was canceled after only four episodes due to low ratings and less than favorable reviews. Thompson provided the voice for the LeBron James puppet in Nike's MVP "Most Valuable Puppets" commercials, which were produced to be shown throughout the 2009 NBA Playoffs. Thompson also guest starred on the USA Network TV show Psych, Season 4's "High Top Fade Out" (episode 7). He played an estranged college singing buddy of the character Gus. In 2011 he briefly returned to Nickelodeon, as he guest starred in "iParty with Victorious", a crossover episode of TV sitcoms "iCarly" and "Victorious". Thompson is the current host of TeenNick's 1990's programming block, The '90s Are All That.

[edit] Saturday Night Live

Kenan Thompson returned to sketch comedy when he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2003, becoming the first SNL cast member to be born after SNL's premiere in 1975 and the first SNL cast member to have been a cast member on children's shows (All That and Kenan and Kel). He was a feature player until 2005 (spanning the 29th and 30th seasons), and was promoted to repertory player at the beginning of season 31 (the 2005-2006 season).

Personal life[link]

On September 30, 2010, US Weekly announced that Thompson and his girlfriend Christina Evangeline had become engaged. They married on November 11, 2011.^[4]

SNL characters[link]

Thompson's recurring characters on Saturday Night Live include:

• Deandre Cole (a talk-show host whose entire show, BET's "What Up With That?," is little more than an extended musical number)
• Barbara Birmingham (a chain-smoking nanny with outre advice on disciplining children)
• DJ Dynasty Handbag from MTV4's Deep House Dish
• Jake Denmont (Mrs. Denmont's son on Appalachian Emergency Room)
• Jean K. Jean (a French Def Comedy Jam performer)
• Lorenzo McIntosh (an imprisoned convict hired by local authorities to scare juvenile delinquents straight by using movie references. Is often partnered with other criminals -- played by the host, including a memorable role in which Lindsay Lohan played herself as a convict)
• Oscar Rogers (a financial analyst whose only advice for solving the current economic crisis is to "fix it!")
• Virginiaca Hastings, a sassy woman who flirts with store clerks and has a string of stepchildren (played by Ellen Page, Justin Timberlake, Scarlett Johanssen, and Blake Lively)
• Dave "Beef Jelly" Winfield, one of the comedians in the "Original Kings of Catchphrase Comedy" video series
• Steve Kane: Booker T. Washington High School's coach who always barks at the kids to shut up and defends Principal Frye (Jay Pharoah) and the teachers during school functions.

Celebrity impersonations[link]

• Al Roker
• Al Sharpton
• Alfonso Ribeiro (as himself and as Carlton from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air)
• apl.de.ap
• Aretha Franklin
• B.B. King
• Barry Bonds
• Bernie Mac
• Bill Cosby (whom Thompson also impersonated on All That)
• Cee-Lo Green
• Chaka Khan
• Charles Barkley
• Charles Rangel
• Chris Clark
• Colin Powell
• Dr. Cornel West
• Desmond Tutu
• Don King
• Emmanuel Lewis
• Esther Rolle, (as Florida Evans on Good Times)
• Flavor Flav
• Fred Berry
• Gary Coleman
• George Clinton
• George Foreman
• Greg Gumbel
• Herman Cain
• James Harrison
• Jennifer Hudson
• Jeremiah Wright
• Jimmy McMillan
• Lil' Kim
• LL Cool J
• Leslie David Baker (as Stanley Hudson)
• Louis Armstrong
• Maya Angelou
• Marlon Brando
• Michael Clark Duncan
• Bobbi Kristina Brown
• Michael Steele
• Nipsey Russell
• O.J. Simpson
• Patti LaBelle
• Plaxico Burress
• Randy Jackson
• Raven Symoné
• Reba McEntire
• Roland Burris
• Sammy Sosa
• Serena Williams
• Sinbad
• Sir Mix-A-Lot
• Star Jones
• Steve Harvey
• Wanda Sykes
• Whitman Mayo (as Grady Wilson)
• Whoopi Goldberg
• will.i.am
• William "The Refrigerator" Perry
• Donovan McNabb's mother, Wilma
• Boyd Tinsley
• Stuart Scott
• Tiger Woods
• Kanye West (vocal impression only; Jay Pharoah later performed a physical and vocal impersonation of Kanye West)
• Quincy Jones
• Mo'Nique
• Tyler Perry
• SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels
• Ice Cube
• Theodore Roosevelt.^[5]

Filmography[link]

Thompson at the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con

Performing "An Evening with Kenan Thompson" in 2010

• All That (1994–1999) various roles
• D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994) as Russ Tyler
• Heavyweights (1995) as Roy
• The Steve Harvey Show (1996–1998) as Junior
• Kenan & Kel (1996–2000) as Kenan Rockmore
• D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996) as Russ Tyler
• Sister, Sister: "Inherit the Twin" (1997) as Trevor
• Good Burger (1997) as Dexter Reed
• Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1998) guest appearance
• The Amanda Show (1999) as himself
• Oh Yeah! Cartoons (1999–2000) host
• Cousin Skeeter: "The Hoo, I'm Wild Wild West" (1999) as Kenan Rockmore
• Two Heads Are Better Than None (2000) as Kenan Rockmore
• The Parkers: "Trading Places" (2000) as Damon
• The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000) as Lewis
• Big Fat Liar (2002) as party guest
• The Master of Disguise (2002) as guy on computer
• Saturday Night Live (2003—) various roles
• Love Don't Cost a Thing (2003) as Walter Colley
• My Boss's Daughter (2003) as Hans
• Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004) as Kenard
• Fat Albert (2004) as Fat Albert
• Snakes on a Plane (2006) as Troy
• Wild 'N Out (2006)
• Crank Yankers: "Episode #4.1" (2007) as Mark Thomas
• Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards '07 (2007) guest appearance
• Space Chimps (2008) as Ringmaster
• Wieners (2008) as Wyatt
• Psych: "High Top Fade Out" (2009) as Joon
• Stan Helsing (2009) as Teddy
• Sit Down, Shut Up (2009) as Sue Sezno
• iCarly: "iParty With Victorious" (2011) as himself
• The Smurfs (2011) as Greedy Smurf
• The '90s Are All That (2011) host

Solo album[link]

• The Good Times Comedy CD (2004)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kenan Thompson

• Official website
• Kenan Thompson at the Internet Movie Database
• Kenan Thompson at the Notable Names Database
• Kenan on Twitter

Steve Harvey
Harvey in September 2008
Born	Broderick Steven Harvey (1957-01-17) January 17, 1957 (age 55) Welch, West Virginia, U.S.
Residence	Atlanta, Georgia
Occupation	Actor Comedian Radio and television personality Author
Years active	1985–present
Spouse	Marcia Harvey (1980-1994)[1] Mary Lee Shackelford (1996-2005)[1] Marjorie Bridges (2007–present)[1]
Website
http://www.steveharvey.com

Broderick Steven "Steve" Harvey (born January 17, 1957)^[2] is an American entertainer and author who hosts The Steve Harvey Morning Show, and Family Feud. He is the author of Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, which was published in March 2009, and the book Straight Talk, No Chaser: How to Find and Keep a Man.

He's been an actor, comedian, entertainer, television and radio personality and best-selling author. He starred in The Steve Harvey Show, and he was featured in The Original Kings of Comedy. He also hosts the Steve Harvey Project, on an extended cable channel.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Harvey was born in Welch, West Virginia, the son of Eloise and Jesse Harvey, a coal miner.^[3] His family moved to Cleveland, Ohio where he graduated from Glenville High School in 1974.^[4][1] Shortly after high school he attended Kent State University and West Virginia University and is a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity.^[1] He has been a boxer, an insurance salesman, and a mailman.^[1][5]

Comedy career[link]

Steve Harvey first performed stand-up comedy on October 8, 1985 at the Hilarities Comedy Club in Cleveland, Ohio. He was a finalist in Second Annual Johnnie Walker National Comedy Search in 1989, eventually leading to a long stint as host of It's Showtime at the Apollo, succeeding Mark Curry in that role. His success as a stand-up comedian led to a starring role on the ABC show Me and the Boys in 1994. He would later star on the WB network show, The Steve Harvey Show, which ran from 1996 to 2002. While wildly popular in the African-American community (the show won multiple NAACP Image Awards), the show never achieved critical acclaim outside of the African-American community, a matter about which Harvey has often complained.

In 1997, Harvey continued his work in stand-up comedy, touring as one of the Kings of Comedy, along with Cedric the Entertainer, D.L. Hughley and Bernie Mac. The comedy act would later be put together into a film by Spike Lee called The Original Kings of Comedy. DVD sales of The Original Kings of Comedy and Don't Trip, He Ain't Through With Me Yet increased Harvey's popularity. Harvey released a hip hop and R&B audio CD on a record label he founded, and authored a book, Steve Harvey's Big Time. That title was also used as the name of Harvey's comedy and variety television show (later renamed Steve Harvey's Big Time Challenge) which aired on The WB network from 2003 until 2005. Harvey also launched a clothing line which features the line of dress wear. In 2005 he co-starred in the movie Racing Stripes. He had appeared in the 2003 movie The Fighting Temptations alongside Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyoncé Knowles.

In 2008, Harvey hosted the Disney Dreamers Academy with Steve Harvey, a teen-focused personal and professional enrichment event that took place January 17–20, 2008 at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Harvey along with a team of judges chose 100 teens to attend the event.^[6]

Radio host[link]

[edit] The Steve Harvey Morning Show

Harvey is the host of a weekday-morning radio program, The Steve Harvey Morning Show, which was originally syndicated through Radio One, Inc. from September 2000 until May 2005, and which continues to air to the present time.

Television roles[link]

[edit] Family Feud

Harvey became the host of Family Feud in September 2010.^[8]

Film roles[link]

Personal life[link]

Harvey has been married three times and has four biological children. He has twin daughters, Karli and Brandi (born 1982) and a son, Broderick Jr. (born 1991), from his first marriage^[10] to Marcia Harvey.^[1] Harvey also has another son, Wynton (born 1997), from his second marriage to Mary Shackelford. The couple divorced in November 2005.^[11]

In June 2007 he married his current wife, Marjorie Bridges, who he says is responsible for making him a better man and changing his life.^[12] The Harveys live in Atlanta, Georgia with four of their youngest children as a "blended family".^[13] Harvey will move to Illinois to tape a daily talk show for NBCUniversal from the company's Chicago studios. Production on Family Feud and the radio show will remain in Atlanta, though Harvey will host the radio show from Chicago as well.^[14]

Controversy[link]

On March 27, 2009, Harvey appeared on an episode of The Tyra Show with Tyra Banks to promote his book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man.^[15] During the course of the interview, Harvey advised that women should not date atheists. Saying:

"You sitting up there talking to a dude and he tells you he’s an atheist, you need to pack it up and go home. You talking to a person who don’t believe in God. What’s his moral barometer? Where’s it at? It's nowhere."

On May 30, 2009, Harvey appeared on an episode of Larry King Live guest hosted by Joy Behar.^[16] During that interview, Harvey reiterated his assertion that women should not date atheists, who he claimed have "no moral barometer". Harvey stated that he refuses to speak to anyone claiming to be an atheist, who he said are "idiot(s)". Harvey went on to suggest that modern astrophysics and evolutionary biology are without merit by saying:

You can't just tell me it spun out of a gastrous ball and then all of a sudden we were evolved from monkeys. Why we still got monkeys?

In August 2011 on his radio show, Harvey called Cornel West and Tavis Smiley "Uncle Toms" because they have criticized President Barack Obama.^[17]

Awards[link]

In 2007, Harvey won the Syndicated Personality/Show of the Year award by Radio & Records magazine. Other finalists included: Delilah, Blair Garner, Kidd Kraddick, The Lia Show and John Tesh.^[18]

References[link]

External links[link]

• www.steveharvey.com -- Official website
• Steve Harvey at the Internet Movie Database

Sarah Silverman
Silverman at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Take This Waltz
Birth name	Sarah Kate Silverman
Born	(1970-12-01) December 1, 1970 (age 41) Bedford, New Hampshire,[citation needed] United States
Medium	Stand up, Television, Film, Radio
Years active	1992–present
Genres	Blue comedy Black comedy Political satire
Influences	Steve Martin
Domestic partner(s)	Jimmy Kimmel (2002-2009) Alec Sulkin (2010)
Notable works and roles	Saturday Night Live Sarah Silverman on The Sarah Silverman Program
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics 2008 Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Sarah Kate Silverman (born December 1, 1970) is an American comedienne, writer, actress, singer and musician. Her satirical comedy addresses social taboos and controversial topics such as racism, sexism, and religion.

Silverman first gained notice as a writer and occasional performer on Saturday Night Live. She starred in and produced The Sarah Silverman Program, which ran from 2007 to 2010, on Comedy Central.^[1] She often performs her act mocking bigotry and stereotypes of ethnic groups and religious denominations by having her comic character endorse them in an ironic fashion.^[2][3]

Early life[link]

Sarah Silverman, the youngest of four daughters, was born in Manchester, New Hampshire. Her mother, Beth Ann Halpin, was George McGovern's personal campaign photographer and founded the theater company New Thalian Players.^[4] Her father, Donald Silverman, was a social worker by training who ran the discount clothing store Crazy Sophie's Outlet. She was raised without religion, though she is ethnically Jewish.^[5]

She appeared in community theater at age 12, most notably with Community Players of Concord, New Hampshire in Annie and also appeared on a local television show in the Boston area called Community Auditions at age 15. At seventeen, she performed stand-up comedy in a restaurant, singing a song she called "Mammaries."

After graduating from The Derryfield School in Manchester, New Hampshire, she attended New York University and continued her stand-up in Greenwich Village.^[6][7][8][9]

Career[link]

[edit] 1993-2007: Career beginnings and Jesus is Magic

Silverman first received national attention in the 1993–94 season of Saturday Night Live (SNL) as a writer and featured player. She was fired after one season because only one of the sketches she wrote survived to dress rehearsal, and none aired. Bob Odenkirk, a former SNL writer explained, "I could see how it wouldn't work at SNL because she's got her own voice, she's very much Sarah Silverman all the time. She can play a character but she doesn't disappear into the character — she makes the character her."^[6] Silverman states she was upset when SNL fired her via fax. She parodied the situation when she appeared on The Larry Sanders Show episode "The New Writer" (1996), playing Sanders' new staff writer, whose jokes are not used because of the chauvinism and bias of the male chief comedy writer, who favors the jokes of his male co-writers. She appeared in three episodes of Larry Sanders during its last two seasons.

Silverman was a featured performer on the HBO sketch comedy show Mr. Show (1995–97). She made TV program guest appearances on Seinfeld, in the episode "The Money"; (1997) on Star Trek: Voyager, in the two-part time travel episode "Future's End" (1996); on V.I.P. in the episode "48¹⁄₂ Hours" (2002); on Greg the Bunny as a series regular (2002); and on the puppet television comedy Crank Yankers, as the voice of Hadassah Guberman (2003, 2007). She had small parts in the films There's Something About Mary, Say It Isn't So, School of Rock, The Way of the Gun, Overnight Delivery, Screwed, Heartbreakers, Evolution, School for Scoundrels, and Rent, playing a mixture of comic and serious roles.

Silverman's concert film, Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic, based on her one-woman show of the same name, was released in 2005. Liam Lynch directed the movie, distributed by Roadside Attractions. Rotten Tomatoes gave Jesus Is Magic a "fresh" rating of 64% with 54 positive reviews and 30 negative ones, with the "cream of the crop" giving it a rating of 67%.^[10] It made US$124,475 on its opening weekend, showing on seven screens. The box office performance led to an expanded release in as many as 57 theaters, resulting in a box office take of more than US$1.3 million.^[11] The DVD was released in June 2006. The soundtrack featured songs and standup from the movie, and previously unreleased songs.^[12] As part of the film's publicity campaign, she appeared online in Slate, as the cover subject of Heeb magazine, and in roasts on Comedy Central of Pamela Anderson and Hugh Hefner.

Silverman played a therapist in a skit for a bonus DVD of the album Lullabies to Paralyze by the band Queens of the Stone Age. Silverman also appears at the end of the video for American glam metal band Steel Panther's "Death To All But Metal". On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Silverman parodied sketches from Chappelle's Show, replaying Dave Chappelle's characterizations of Rick James and "Tyrone", as well as a Donnell Rawlings character based on the miniseries Roots. The parody addressed a popular rumor that Silverman was the planned replacement for Chappelle after he left his popular television show. In 2006, Silverman placed #50 on Maxim Hot 100 List.^[13] In 2007, she placed #29 and appeared on the cover.^[14] She made the cover of The Observer in the United Kingdom, with an article naming her "the world's hottest, most controversial comedian".^[15]

[edit] 2007-2010: The Sarah Silverman Program

Silverman at the Tribeca Film Festival, 2007

Silverman's television sitcom, The Sarah Silverman Program, debuted on Comedy Central in February 2007. The show proved to be a ratings success, scoring the highest premiere ratings of any Comedy Central show in three years, with 1.81 million viewers and the highest 18–49 rating of the night on cable.^[1][16] It portrays the day-to-day adventures of fictionalized versions of Silverman, her sister Laura and their friends. A number of comedic actors from Mr. Show have reappeared on The Sarah Silverman Program. Silverman was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award^[17] for her acting on the show. At the awards ceremony, she wore a fake mustache. Comedy Central canceled The Sarah Silverman Program after three seasons.^[18]

In June 2007 she hosted the MTV Movie Awards. During her opening act, she commented on the upcoming jail sentence of Paris Hilton, who was in the audience, "In a couple of days, Paris Hilton is going to jail... As a matter of fact, I heard that to make her feel more comfortable in prison, the guards are going to paint the bars to look like penises. I think it is wrong, too. I just worry she is going to break her teeth on those things."^[19] In September 2007 she appeared at the MTV Video Music Awards. Following the comeback performance of Britney Spears, Silverman mocked her on stage, saying: "Wow, she is amazing. I mean, she is 25 years old, and she has already accomplished everything she's going to accomplish in her life."^[20]

In January 2008 she appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to show Jimmy Kimmel, her boyfriend at the time, a special video. The video turned out to be a song called "I'm Fucking Matt Damon", in which she and Matt Damon sang a duet about having an affair behind Kimmel's back. The video created an "instant YouTube sensation".^[21] Kimmel responded with his own video a month later with Damon's friend Ben Affleck, which enlisted a panoply of stars, to record Kimmel's song "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck".^[22] On September 13, 2008, Silverman won a Creative Arts Emmy for writing the song "I'm Fucking Matt Damon".^[23] Silverman guest starred in a second season episode of the USA cable program Monk as Marci Maven. She returned in the sixth season premiere, and for the 100th episode of Monk. According to the audio commentary on the Clerks II DVD, director Kevin Smith offered her the role that eventually went to Rosario Dawson, but she turned it down out of fear of being typecast in "girlfriend roles". However, she told Smith the script was "really funny" and mentioned that if the role of Randal Graves was being offered to her she "would do it in a heartbeat."

In October 2008, Silverman visited the United Kingdom to promote the release of The Sarah Silverman Program on Paramount Comedy, but her media and stage performances failed to impress audiences. Her debut stand-up performance at the Hammersmith Apollo was widely panned by the critics and audiences alike. The performance bombed when Silverman's warm-up act failed to appear and Silverman rushed through a short 35–40 minute set. The heckling audience, who had been charged £40–50 a seat, refused to leave the theatre and Silverman, sporting a pair of after-show slippers, was forced to return to the stage for an impromptu question and answer session. Steve Bennett from comedy website Chortle declared that "minute for minute, there are sex phonelines that are cheaper than Sarah Silverman."^[24][25] In an interview on the How Was Your Week podcast, Silverman made one of her only public comments on the matter, claiming that the show had been one of the best of her life and that the audience reaction had been misreported by bloggers and the press.^[26]

Silverman at the 2010 Brooklyn Book Festival

She also appears in Strange Powers, the 2009 documentary by Kerthy Fix and Gail O'Hara about cult songwriter Stephin Merritt and his band, the Magnetic Fields. Silverman wrote a comic memoir, The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee, which was published in 2010, and became a New York Times Best Seller. She received a $2.5 million advance for the book.

[edit] 2011-present: Take this Waltz and other projects

Silverman played a dramatic role alongside Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen in the film Take This Waltz, written and directed by Sarah Polley. The film was well received when it premiered in Toronto in 2011^[27] and was picked up by Magnolia for U.S. distribution in Summer 2012.^[28] Much was made of the fact that the movie features a full-frontal nude scene from Silverman,^[29] which the actress has spoken about on several occasions. At the Toronto International Film Festival, she told the press she'd deliberately gained weight for the part, emphasizing that Polley wanted "real bodies and real women" rather than impossibly skinny ones.^[30] In interviews she warned fans not to expect too much.^[31] However, she later told podcaster and author Julie Klausner that she had not really gained weight for the role, and that the statements were meant as self-deprecating humor.^[26]

A single camera comedy pilot by Silverman was given the go ahead by television network NBC in 2011 after a bidding war between multiple networks.^[32] Arrested Development producer, Ron Howard was reported to have been personally involved in the development process of the series.^[33] It was to be loosely based on Silverman's life as a woman who had just ended a decade long live-in relationship.^[32] The series was tentatively titled Susan 313 and received a put pilot commitment, which would require the network to pay a large fine if the pilot was not aired.^[34] However, NBC did not pick up the series for the fall 2012 season.^[35]

Controversy[link]

Racial slur[link]

In a July 2001 interview on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien Silverman used the ethnic slur "chink" explaining that a friend advised her to avoid jury duty by writing a racial slur on the selection form, "something inappropriate, like 'I hate chinks.'" Silverman said she decided that she did not want to be thought of as a racist, so "I wrote 'I love chinks' – and who doesn't?" Silverman said that the joke satirizes the racist thought process. Guy Aoki, of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA), objected to her use of the slur.^[36][37] NBC and O'Brien apologized, but Silverman did not, later appearing on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher in July and August 2001. Silverman questioned Aoki's sincerity, accusing him of exploiting the opportunity for publicity. On an episode of the show, Aoki appeared with Silverman, and stated that he did not accept Silverman's explanation, saying that it was not successful satire and that comedians should consult with groups such as his before performing such material. Silverman stated in an NPR's Fresh Air interview that she was asked to repeat the joke on Politically Incorrect, among other places, but she eventually dropped the joke from her act because she felt it was becoming stale.^[12] Silverman has since turned the complaint into grist for her stand-up act, saying that the experience helped teach her the important lesson that racism is bad: "And I mean bad, like in that black way."^[38]

[edit] The Aristocrats

A minor controversy arose over Silverman's performance in the documentary film The Aristocrats (2005). The film shows Silverman giving an apparently autobiographical account of her life as a child sex performer and mentions how Joe Franklin, a New York radio and TV personality whose nostalgic programs have aired since the early 1950s, would ask her to perform privately for him in his apartment. Silverman looks at the camera and, in a deadpan voice, accused Franklin of raping her. The film was edited in such a way that it appears as if Franklin knows what Silverman said about him. Later, after her clip, Franklin is shown stating "Sarah Silverman is a young lady to watch". After the film came out, Franklin took offense to Silverman's using his name and considered suing her. A month later the New York Times noted he remained undecided, but said, "the best thing I could do is get Sarah better writers so she'd have funnier material."^[39]

Personal life[link]

Silverman's humor frequently references religion; in this photo, she is holding the Jesus Dress Up magnet set

Silverman has said that she does not consume alcohol, because it nauseates her. She is open about her lifelong battle with clinical depression which at one point led to her developing an addiction to Xanax. She credited her subsequent emotional health to taking prescription drug Zoloft.^[8][40][41] She struggled with bedwetting from the time she was young until well into her teens and has stated that the last time she wet her bed was when she was fired from Saturday Night Live.^[12][41] Her autobiography, published in April 2010, entitled The Bedwetter, explores the subject, among others.

Silverman talked about having dated Dave Attell on one of her appearances on The Howard Stern Show. Silverman and Colin Quinn joked about having been romantically linked during her Saturday Night Live career. In her first appearance on the Stern show in June 2001 she said she was dating someone named Tom who wrote for SNL. Silverman was in a relationship that began in 2002 with comedian Jimmy Kimmel.^[42] She referred to the relationship in some of her comedy, "I'm Jewish, but I wear this Saint Christopher medal sometimes; my boyfriend is Catholic — but you know... it was cute the way he gave it to me. He said if it doesn't burn a hole through my skin, it will protect me."^[6] In July 2008, Vanity Fair reported that the couple had split, ending their relationship of five years. However, in October 2008 it was revealed by Fox News and People magazine that they were on "the road back to being together."^[43] The couple attended the wedding of Howard Stern and Beth Ostrosky together,^[44] but split again in March 2009.^[45]

Silverman has stated she does not want to get married until same-sex couples are able to.^[46] She has also stated she doesn't want to have biological children to avoid the risk that they might inherit her depression.^[47] Silverman's biological sister Laura plays her sister on The Sarah Silverman Program. Another sister, Susan, is a rabbi who lives in Jerusalem, Israel with her husband and five children.^[48][49] Silverman is a fan of Jenny Lewis and appeared in Lewis' music video for the song "Rise Up With Fists!!" She is also a fan of comedian Steve Martin, who was one of her major inspirations as a younger comedian.^[15] Silverman enjoys playing Scrabble on the Internet. One of her regular opponents is Alyssa Milano, who lives in the same building that she does.^[40][50] She credited comedian Tig Notaro as one of her best friends in an interview in The Advocate.^[46]

She considers herself ethnically Jewish, which she has frequently mined for material, but says she is agnostic^[51] and does not follow the religion, claiming, "I have no religion. But culturally I can't escape it; I'm very Jewish."^[52][53] Her humor has also touched on other religions. In 2009, she suggested the Pope sell the Vatican and use some of the money for luxurious housing and the remainder to stop world hunger, saying he would "get crazy pussy."^[54] In January 2010, Silverman was dating Family Guy producer/writer Alec Sulkin,^[55] but as of October 2010, they had broken up.^[56]

Solar energy[link]

At the 2011 Israeli Presidential Conference in Jerusalem, in an interview with Yigal Ravid, Silverman spoke about her support for solar power as a project on which Israelis and Palestinians could work together. Silverman endorsed solar energy not only as good for the environment but as a peace-building industry as well. She said:

When I think about peace… and I think about the Jews and the Palestinians…. I think the only real solution is the classic buddy-movie formula… You take two enemies and they are forced to work together on some common goal and in the end they realize they aren’t that different. Right? So they’ve got to come together either for some common goal — how about solar power? [to applause] How about solar power!? How about powering the world with this beautiful sun they share?^[57]

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Silverman protesting during the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike

• Community Auditions (1985)
• Saturday Night Live (writer & cast member, 1993–1994)
• Mr. Show (featured performer, 1995)
• The Larry Sanders Show (1994–1996)
• Star Trek Voyager ("Future's End", two episodes, 1996)
• Brotherly Love - (Rosa "Pizza Girl" episode 1997)
• Seinfeld ("The Money", 1997)
• JAG (Blind Side "Lt. Schiparelli", 1997)
• Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist (voice as herself, "Alderman", 1998)
• Smog (unsold pilot, 1999)
• Late Last Night (1999)
• Futurama ("The Cryonic Woman", 2000; "Futurama: Bender's Big Score, 2007)
• Super Nerds (unsold pilot, 2000)
• Rocky Times (unsold pilot, 2000)
• Greg the Bunny (2002–2004)
• Crank Yankers (voice, 2002–2007)
• Frasier (Jane, "Maris Returns", 2003)
• Pilot Season (miniseries, 2004)
• Entourage (herself, 2004)
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force ("Robositter", 2004, credited as Big S)
• Drawn Together ("The Other Cousin", episode 1.5, 2004, Cousin Bleh)
• Monk (Marci Maven, "Mr. Monk and the TV Star", 2004)
• American Dad! ("Stan Knows Best", 2005, voice)
• Tom Goes to the Mayor ("Pipe Camp", episode 11, 2005)
• Celebrity Poker Showdown (twice, 2003–2004)
• Comic Relief (stand-up segment 2006)
• Monk (Marci Maven,Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan, 2007)
• The Andy Milonakis Show (herself, 2007)
• The Sarah Silverman Program (2007–2010)
• Monk (Marci Maven, Mr. Monk's 100th Case, 2008)
• 8 out of 10 cats ("Herself", 2008)
• Friday Night with Jonathan Ross ("Herself", 2008)
• The Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget (2008) (pre-recorded video message)
• The Simpsons ("Stealing First Base", 2010, voice)
• Vitamin Water Commercial (Voice, 2010)
• Warren The Ape ("Black Lotus", 2010 as Herself)
• Bob's Burgers (two episodes, 2011 as Ollie)
• The Good Wife ("Getting Off", 2011 as Stephanie Engler)
• The League ("Thanksgiving", 2011 as Andre's sister, Heather)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sarah Silverman

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Sarah Silverman

• Sarah Silverman at the Internet Movie Database
• Sarah Silverman on Twitter
• Sarah Silverman on National Public Radio in 2010
• TheJC.com: Interview with Sarah Silverman
• Guardian interview
• AV Club article
• Nerve article

Whoopi Goldberg
Goldberg in New York City, November 2008
Born	Caryn Elaine Johnson (1955-11-13) November 13, 1955 (age 56) New York City
Occupation	Actress, comedienne, radio disc jockey, producer, author, singer-songwriter, talk show host,
Years active	1981–present
Spouse	Alvin Martin (1973–1979; divorced) David Claessen (1986–1988; divorced) Lyle Trachtenberg (1994–1995; divorced)
Partner	Frank Langella (1996–2001)

Whoopi Goldberg ( /ˈhwʊpi/, born Caryn Elaine Johnson; November 13, 1955)^[1][2] is an American comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.

Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple (1985) playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won her first Golden Globe Award for her role in the film. In 1990, she starred as Oda Mae Brown, a psychic helping a slain man (Patrick Swayze) find his killer in the blockbuster film Ghost. This performance won her a second Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Notable later films include Sister Act and Sister Act 2, The Lion King, Made in America, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Girl, Interrupted and Rat Race. She is also acclaimed for her roles as the bartender Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation and as Terry Doolittle in Jumpin' Jack Flash. More recently, she had performed the voice of Stretch in Toy Story 3 and made an appearance in Glee as Carmen Tibideaux.

Goldberg has been nominated for 13 Emmy Awards for her work in television. She was co-producer of the popular game show Hollywood Squares from 1998 to 2004. She has been the moderator of the daytime talk show The View since 2007. Goldberg has a Grammy, two Emmys, two Golden Globes, a Tony (for production, not acting), and an Oscar. In addition, Goldberg has a British Academy Film Award, four People's Choice Awards, and has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. All of this has made her one of the most accomplished actors of her generation, and she is one of the few entertainers who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award.

Early life[link]

Goldberg was born Caryn Elaine Johnson in New York City and raised in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, the daughter of Emma (née Harris), a nurse and teacher, and Robert James Johnson, Jr., a clergyman.^[3][4] Goldberg has described her mother as a "stern, strong, and wise woman" who raised her as a single mother after Goldberg's father had left the family.^[5] Goldberg's recent ancestors migrated north from Faceville, Georgia, Palatka, Florida, and Virginia.^[6] Results of a DNA test, revealed in the 2006 PBS documentary African American Lives, traced part of her ancestry to the Papel and Bayote people of modern-day Guinea-Bissau. Her admixture test indicates that she is 92 percent is of sub-Saharan African origin and 8 percent is of European origin.^[7][8]

Her stage name, Whoopi, was taken from a whoopee cushion; she has stated that "If you get a little gassy, you've got to let it go. So people used to say to me, 'You're like a whoopee cushion.' And that's where the name came from."^[9][10] She adopted the traditionally German/Jewish surname Goldberg as a stage name because her mother felt the original surname of Johnson was not "Jewish enough" to make her a star.^[11] According to an anecdote told by Nichelle Nichols in the documentary film Trekkies, a young Goldberg was watching Star Trek, and upon seeing Nichols' character Uhura, exclaimed, "Momma! There's a black lady on TV and she ain't no maid!"^[12] This spawned life-long fandom of Star Trek for Goldberg, who would eventually accept a recurring guest-starring role on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Between the years of 1979 and 1981, she lived in Communist East Germany, working in a number of theater productions. During her travels, she would smuggle various items into the country for the artists she stayed with.^[13]

Career[link]

Early work[link]

Goldberg trained under famed acting teacher Uta Hagen at the HB Studio. She first appeared onscreen in 1981–82 in Citizen: I'm Not Losing My Mind, I'm Giving It Away, an avant-garde ensemble feature by San Francisco filmmaker William Farley. Goldberg created The Spook Show, a one-woman show composed of different character monologues, in 1983. Director Mike Nichols was instantly impressed and offered to take the show to Broadway. The self-titled show ran from October 24, 1984 to March 10, 1985 for a total of 156 sold-out performances. While on Broadway, Goldberg's performance caught the eye of director Steven Spielberg. He was about to direct the film The Color Purple, based on Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker. Having read the novel, she was ecstatic at being offered a lead role in her first motion picture. Goldberg received compliments on her acting from Spielberg, Walker, and music consultant Quincy Jones. The Color Purple was released in late 1985, and was a critical and commercial success. It was later nominated for 11 Academy Awards including a nomination for Goldberg as Best Actress. The film did not win any of its Academy Award nominations, but Goldberg won the Golden Globe Award.

A comedic and dramatic balance[link]

Goldberg at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.

Goldberg starred in Penny Marshall's directorial debut, Jumpin' Jack Flash, and began a relationship with David Claessen, a director of photography on the set, and the couple married later that year. The film was a success, and during the next two years, three additional motion pictures featured Goldberg, Burglar, Fatal Beauty, and The Telephone. Though not as successful as her prior motion pictures, Goldberg still garnered awards from the NAACP Image Awards. Claessen and Goldberg divorced after the box office failure of The Telephone, which Goldberg was under contract to star in. She tried to sue the producers of the film, to no avail. The 1988 movie, Clara's Heart, was critically acclaimed, and featured a young Neil Patrick Harris. As the 1980s concluded, she participated in the numerous HBO specials of Comic Relief with fellow comedians Robin Williams and Billy Crystal.

In January 1990, Goldberg starred with Jean Stapleton in the TV situation comedy Bagdad Cafe. The show ran for two seasons on CBS. Simultaneously, Goldberg starred in The Long Walk Home, portraying a woman in the Civil Rights Movement. She played a psychic in the 1990 film Ghost, and became the first black female to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in nearly 50 years, and only the second black female in Oscar history to win an acting award.^{[citation needed]} Premiere Magazine named her character, Oda Mae Brown, to the list of Top 100 best film characters of all time.^[14]

Goldberg starred in Soapdish and had a recurring role on Star Trek: The Next Generation as Guinan, which she would reprise in two Star Trek movies. On May 29, 1992, Sister Act was released. The motion picture grossed well over US$100 million and Goldberg was nominated for a Golden Globe. Next, she starred in Sarafina!. During the next year, she hosted a late-night talk show, The Whoopi Goldberg Show and starred in two more motion pictures Made in America and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. From 1994 to 1995, Whoopi appeared in Corrina, Corrina, The Lion King (voice), The Pagemaster (voice), Boys on the Side, and Moonlight and Valentino. Goldberg became the first African-American female to host the Academy Awards in 1994. She hosted the Awards again in 1996, 1999, and 2002. Goldberg released four motion pictures in 1996: Bogus (with Gerard Depardieu and Haley Joel Osment), Eddie, The Associate (with Dianne Wiest) and Ghosts of Mississippi (with Alec Baldwin and James Woods). During the filming of Eddie, Goldberg began dating co-star Frank Langella, a relationship which lasted until early 2000. In October 1997, Goldberg and ghostwriter Daniel Paisner, cowrote Book, a collection featuring insights and opinions.^{[15][clarification needed]} In November and December 2005, Goldberg revived her one-woman show on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre in honor of its 20th anniversary.

From 1998 to 2001, Goldberg took supporting roles in the How Stella Got Her Groove Back with Angela Basset, Girl, Interrupted with Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie, Kingdom Come, and Rat Race with an all-star ensemble cast. She also played the voice of Liz on the first four seasons of popular PBS program The Magic Schoolbus. She starred in the successful ABC-TV versions of Cinderella, A Knight in Camelot, and the TNT Original Movie Call Me Claus. In 1998, she gained a new audience when she became the "Center Square" on Hollywood Squares, hosted by Tom Bergeron. She also served as Executive Producer, for which she was nominated for 4 Emmys.^[16] She left the show in 2002, and the "Center Square" was filled in with celebrities for the last two on-air seasons without Goldberg. In 2003, Goldberg returned to television, starring in the NBC comedy, Whoopi, which was canceled after one season. On her 48th birthday, Goldberg was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Goldberg also appeared along side Samuel Jackson and Angela Bassett in the HBO special Unchained Memories, narrating slave narratives. During the next two years, she became a spokeswoman for Slim Fast and produced two television sitcoms: Lifetime's original drama Strong Medicine that ran for six seasons and Whoopi's Littleburg, a Nickelodeon show for younger children. Goldberg made guest appearances on Everybody Hates Chris, as an elderly character named Louise Clarkson. She produced the Noggin sitcom Just For Kicks, in early 2006. She was a guest at Elton John's 60th birthday bash and concert at Madison Square Garden on March 25, 2007.

[edit] The View

Goldberg at Comic Relief in 2006

On September 4, 2007, Goldberg became the new moderator and co-host of The View, replacing Rosie O'Donnell.^[17] O'Donnell stated on her official blog that she wanted Goldberg to be moderator. Goldberg's debut as moderator drew 3.4 million viewers, 1 million fewer than O'Donnell's debut ratings. After two weeks, however, The View was averaging 3.5 million total viewers under Goldberg, a 7% increase from 3.3 million under O'Donnell the previous season.^[18]

Goldberg's first appearance on the show was controversial when she made statements about Michael Vick's dogfighting as being "part of his cultural upbringing" and "not all that unusual" in parts of the South.^[19][20] Another comment that stirred controversy was the statement that the Chinese "have a very different relationship to cats" and that "you and I would be very pissed if somebody ate kitty."^[21] Some defended Goldberg, including her co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, saying that her comments were taken out of context by the press, because she repeated several times that she did not condone what Vick did.^[22]

On more than one occasion, Goldberg has expressed strong disagreement and irritation with different remarks made by Elisabeth Hasselbeck, such as on October 3, 2007, when Hasselbeck commented that Hillary Clinton's proposed US$ 5,000 baby entitlement might lead to fewer abortions because of women wanting to keep the money.^[23][24]

Goldberg also created controversy when on September 28, 2009, during a discussion of Roman Polanski's case, she opined that Polanski's rape of a thirteen year old in 1977^[25][26] was not "rape-rape".^[27] Goldberg later clarified that she had intended to highlight the exact charge brought against Polanski, namely statutory rape, i.e. unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, rather than rape with an unwilling participant.^[28] Polanski had been initially charged with "rape by use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14, and furnishing a controlled substance to a minor",^[29] but under a plea bargain, Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor with the graver charges dropped,^[30][31][32] before fleeing to France, hours before he was to be formally sentenced.^[29]

After comedienne Kathy Griffin referred to Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown's daughters as "prostitutes", Goldberg said that if anyone insulted her daughter like that then "I would beat their ass." The audience reacted with shock, and support.^[33][34]

Other media appearances[link]

Goldberg in New York City protesting California Proposition 8 (2008).

Goldberg performed the role of Califia, the radiant Queen of the Island of California, for a theater presentation called Golden Dreams at Disney California Adventure Park, the second gate at the Disneyland Resort, in 2000. The show, which explains the history of the Golden State (California), opened on February 8, 2001, with the rest of the park. Golden Dreams closed in September 2008 to make way for the upcoming Little Mermaid ride planned for DCA.

In 2001, Goldberg hosted the 50th Anniversary of I Love Lucy, a 50s black-and-white sitcom, celebrating the legacy of Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley.^{[citation needed]}

Goldberg hosted the 2001 documentary short, The Making of A Charlie Brown Christmas. In July 2006, Goldberg became the main host of the Universal Studios Hollywood Backlot Tour, in which she appears multiple times in video clips shown to the guests on monitors placed on the trams.

Along with her many contributions to film and television and her major impact on this industry, Whoopi Goldberg was a main narrator for HBO's 2003 film, Unchained Memories.

Goldberg made a guest appearance on the hit television show 30 Rock, in which she played herself. She is shown as endorsing her own workout video. In Season 4 of the show, Goldberg counsels Tracy Jordan on winning the "EGOT", the coveted combination of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards.

Goldberg was involved in controversy in July 2004 when, at a fundraiser for John Kerry at Radio City Music Hall in New York, Goldberg made a sexual joke about President George W. Bush, by waving a bottle of wine, pointing toward her pubic area and saying: "We should keep Bush where he belongs, and not in the White House." Slim-Fast, took exception to these comments made by Goldberg and dropped her from the then current ad campaign.^[35]

From August 2006 to March 2008, Goldberg hosted Wake Up With Whoopi, a nationally syndicated morning radio talk and entertainment program.

In October 2007, Goldberg announced on the air that she would be retiring from acting because she is no longer sent scripts, saying, "You know, there's no room for the very talented Whoopi. There's no room right now in the marketplace of cinema".^[36]

On July 14, 2008, Goldberg announced on The View that from July 29 to September 7, she would perform in the Broadway musical Xanadu.

On November 13, 2008, Goldberg's birthday, she announced live on The View that she would be producing, along with Stage Entertainment, the premiere of Sister Act: The Musical at the London Palladium. The show began on Wednesday, May 6, 2009, with the official press night on June 2, 2009. The show featured actress Sheila Hancock and Patina Miller, amongst others.

She also gave a short message at the beginning of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008 wishing all the participants good luck, and stressing the importance of UNICEF, the official charity of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.^[37]

Since its launch in 2008, Goldberg has been a contributor for wowOwow.com, a new website for women to talk culture, politics and gossip.^[38]

Goldberg has also been an advocate for human rights worldwide, moderating a panel at the Alliance of Youth Movements Summit^[39] on how social networks can be used to fight violent extremism^[40] in 2008, and also moderating a panel at the UN in 2009^[41] on human rights, children and armed conflict, terrorism, human rights and reconciliation.

On December 13, 2008, Goldberg guest starred on The Naked Brothers Band, a Nickelodeon rock- mockumentary television show. Before the episode premiered, on February 18, 2008, the band performed on The View and the band members were interviewed by Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd.

On December 18 through 20, 2009, Goldberg performed in the Candlelight Processional at Epcot in Walt Disney World. She was given a standing ovation during her final performance for her reading of the Christmas story and her tribute to the guest choirs performing in the show with her.^{[citation needed]}

She also makes a guest appearance in Michael Jackson's short film for the single "Liberian Girl".

She made an appearance on the seventh season of the cooking reality show Hell's Kitchen by Gordon Ramsay where she was a special guest sitting at the chef's table in the kitchen where she was served by the contestants.^{[citation needed]}

On January 14, 2010, Goldberg made a one-night-only appearance at the Minskoff Theatre to perform in the mega-hit musical The Lion King.^{[citation needed]}

Goldberg made her West End debut as the Mother Superior in musical version of Sister Act for a limited engagement set for August 10–31, 2010,^[42] but prematurely left the cast on August 27, to be with her family; her mother had suffered from a severe stroke.^[43] However, she returned to the cast for five performances.^[44] The show closed on October 30, 2010.^[45]

In 2012, Goldberg guest starred as Jane Marsh, Sue Heck's guidance counsellor in "The Middle". In one scene, Jane reminds her co-workers that her birthday is November 13, Goldberg's actual birthday.

Personal life[link]

Goldberg has been married three times — in 1973 to Alvin Martin (divorced in 1979, one daughter), in 1986 to cinematographer David Claessen (divorced in 1988), and in 1994 to the actor Lyle Trachtenberg (divorced in 1995).^{[citation needed]} She has also been romantically linked with actors Frank Langella and Ted Danson.^{[citation needed]}

In 1973, when Goldberg was 18, she and Alvin Martin had one daughter, Alexandrea (now an actress and producer who has used the stage names Alex Martin and Alex Dean). Goldberg became a grandmother at the age of 34 when her then 16 year-old daughter gave birth to a daughter, Amarah Skye. And through Alex, Goldberg has another two grandchildren who are 6 and 9 years younger than Amarah.^[46]

On August 29, 2010, Goldberg's mother Emma Johnson died after suffering a stroke.^[47][48] Goldberg left London at the time, where she had been performing in Sister Act the Musical, but returned to perform on October 22, 2010.

She has admitted publicly to having been a "high functioning" drug addict years ago, at one point being too terrified to even leave her bed to go use the toilet.^[49] Goldberg suffers from dyslexia.^[50]

Goldberg currently lives near Glenmont the home of inventor Thomas Edison in the gated community of Llewellyn Park in West Orange, New Jersey.

Awards and honors[link]

Goldberg has received two Academy Award nominations, for The Color Purple and Ghost, winning for Ghost. She is the first African American to have received Academy Award nominations for both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. She is the recipient of the 1985 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show for her solo performance on Broadway. She has received eight Daytime Emmy nominations, winning two. She has received five (non-daytime) Emmy nominations. She has received three Golden Globe nominations, winning two. She won a Grammy Award in 1985 and a Tony Award as a producer of the Broadway musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. She has won three People's Choice Awards. In 1999, she received the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Vanguard Award for her continued work in supporting the gay and lesbian community. She has been nominated for five American Comedy Awards with two wins. In 2001, she won the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center as well as the Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry.^[51] In 2009, Goldberg won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host for her role on The View. She shares the award with co-hosts Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Barbara Walters.

Goldberg is one of few to win an Oscar, a Grammy, a Tony, and an Emmy. She has been seen in over 150 films, and during a period in the 1990s, Whoopi was the highest-paid actress of all time. Her humanitarian efforts include working for Comic Relief, recently reuniting with Billy Crystal and Robin Williams for the 20th Anniversary of Comic Relief.

In February 2002, Goldberg sent her Oscar statuette from Ghost to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to be cleaned and replated. During this time, the statuette was taken from its shipping container, and later retrieved by the shipping company, UPS.^[52]

In 1990, Whoopi was officially named an honorary member of the Harlem Globetrotters exhibition basketball team by the members.^[53]

She was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award for outstanding achievement by a dyslexic in 1987.^[50]

Activism[link]

On April 1, 2010, Whoopi Goldberg joined Cyndi Lauper in the launch of her Give a Damn campaign to bring a wider awareness of discrimination of the LGBT community. The campaign is to bring straight people to ally with the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community. Other names included in the campaign are Jason Mraz, Elton John, Judith Light, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Kardashian, Clay Aiken, Sharon Osbourne, and Kelly Osbourne.^[54] On a airing of The View on May 9, 2012, Whoopi stated that she is a Member of the National Rifle Association.^[55]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

• Whoopi Goldberg: Direct from Broadway (1985)
• Television Parts (1985)
• Moonlighting (1986)
• Carol, Carl, Whoopi, and Robin (1987)
• Whoopi Goldberg: Fontaine... Why Am I Straight? (1988) (also writer)
• Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special (guest star 1988)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (recurring guest star from 1988 to 1993 as Guinan)
• My Past Is My Own (1989)
• Kiss Shot (1989)
• Tales from the Whoop: Hot Rod Brown Class Clown (1990)
• Bagdad Cafe (1990–1991)
• Tales from the Crypt (Dead Wait) (1991)
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990–1993) (voice)
• Defenders of Dynatron City (1992) (voice)
• A Different World (Season 4, Episode 92) (1991) (professor)
• The Whoopi Goldberg Show (1992–1993)
• Yuletide in the 'hood (1993) (voice)
• The Nanny (1993; 1999) (herself and a Marriage photographer)
• A Cool Like That Christmas (1994) (voice)
• Denver the Last Dinosaur (1994) (voice)
• The Sunshine Boys (1995) (Cameo)
• Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (1995–1999) (voice).
• Zevo 3 as Grams (2010–present) .

• Mother Goose: A Rappin' and Rhymin' Special (1997) (voice)
• Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (1997)
• A Knight in Camelot (1998)
• The Hollywood Squares (center square from 1998 to 2002) (also producer)
• Alice in Wonderland (1999)
• Our Friend, Martin (1999) (voice)
• Jackie's Back (1999)
• Foxbusters (1999–2000) (voice)
• Celebrity Dish (2000)
• Whose Line Is It Anyway? (2000)
• The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns (1999)
• What Makes a Family (2001) (also executive producer)
• Call Me Claus (2001) (also executive producer)
• Ms. Clavel: My Fair Madeline (2002) (voice)
• It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002)
• Absolutely Fabulous – "Gay", Christmas special (2002)
• Celebrity Deathmatch Herself in the episode "Celebrity Deathmatch Special Report"
• The Disco Ball (2003)
• Good Fences (2003) (also producer)
• Whoopi (2003–2004) (also executive producer)
• Littleburg (2004) (canceled after five episodes)
• Whoopi: Back to Broadway – The 20th Anniversary (2005) (also executive producer and writer)
• Just for Kicks (2006) (developer and executive producer)
• Dawn French's Girls Who Do Comedy (2006) (three part British TV series)
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2006)
• Everybody Hates Chris (2006)
• 30 Rock (2007–2009)
• The View (2007–present) (moderator/co-host)
• Snow Buddies (2008)
• A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008)
• Life on Mars (2008) (uncredited cameo)
• Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins (2008) (narrator)
• Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (2009) (star guest)
• Loose Women (2009) (star guest)
• The Justin Lee Collins Show (2009) (star guest)
• GMTV (2009) (star guest)
• The Electric Company (2009) (star guest)
• The Cleaner (2009) PK A sponsor for NA
• Hell's Kitchen (2010) Special Guest
• The Middle (2012)
• Glee (2012) Carmen Tibideaux
• Suburgatory (2012) Voice of Yakult

Discography[link]

• 1985: Whoopi: Original Broadway Recording
• 1988: Whoopi Goldberg: Fontaine... Why Am I Straight?
• 1992: Sister Act – Soundtrack
• 1993: Sister Act 2 – Soundtrack
• 2005: Whoopi: The 20th Anniversary Show

Bibliography[link]

• Goldberg, Whoopi (March 2011). Sugar Plum Ballerinas #5: CATastrophe. New York: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN 1-4231-2083-3. 
• Goldberg, Whoopi (October 2010). Is It Just Me? Or Is It Nuts Out There?. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 1-4013-2384-7. 
• Goldberg, Whoopi (October 2010). Sugar Plum Ballerinas #4: Terrible Terrel. New York: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN 1-4231-2082-5. 
• Goldberg, Whoopi (2010). Sugar Plum Ballerinas #3: Perfectly Prima. New York: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN 1-4231-2054-X. 
• Goldberg, Whoopi (2009). Sugar Plum Ballerinas #2: Toeshoe Trouble. New York: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN 1-4231-1913-4. 
• Goldberg, Whoopi (2008). Sugar Plum Ballerinas #1: Plum Fantastic. New York: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN 1-4231-1173-7. 
• Goldberg, Whoopi (2006). Whoopi's Big Book of Manners. New York: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN 0-7868-5295-X. 
• Goldberg, Whoopi (1997). Book. New York: R. Weisbach Books. ISBN 0-688-15252-X. 
• Goldberg, Whoopi (1992). Alice. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-08990-0. 

See also[link]

• List of persons who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards
• List of Black Academy Award winners and nominees
• List of Black Golden Globe Award winners and nominees

References[link]