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Vanessa Lynn Williams (born March 18, 1963), known professionally as Vanessa L.
Williams or Vanessa Williams, is an American singer, actress, producer and former fashion model.
In 1983, she became the first African-American woman crowned Miss America, but a scandal arose when Penthouse magazine bought and published nude photographs of her.
She relinquished her title early and was succeeded by the first runner-up, Suzette Charles of New Jersey.
Williams rebounded by launching a career as an entertainer, earning multiple Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award nominations.
She is arguably the most successful Miss America winner in the field of entertainment.Williams released her debut album The Right Stuff in 1988, which spawned the hits "The Right Stuff", a No.
1 on Hot Dance Songs, and "Dreamin'" a No.
1 on R&B and No.
8 on Billboard Hot 100.
Her second studio album The Comfort Zone in 1991 topped the Billboard R&B Album Chart, which spawned the Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit "Save the Best for Last".
In 1994 she debuted on Broadway in the musical Kiss of the Spider Woman.
In 1995 she recorded "Colors of the Wind", the Oscar-winner for Best Original Song from the Disney animated feature film Pocahontas, which reached No.
4 on the Billboard Hot 100.Williams's first major film role was as the female lead in the film Eraser in 1996.
She also starred in the movies Soul Food, Dance with Me, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, Shaft and Johnson Family Vacation.
From 2006 to 2010, she played the role of the scheming, self-absorbed diva and former supermodel Wilhelmina Slater in the ABC comedy series Ugly Betty, for which she received three Emmy Awards nominations.
In 2009, Williams released her eighth studio album, The Real Thing.
From 2010 to 2012, she starred in Desperate Housewives as spoiled rich woman Renee Perry.
She starred in the supernatural drama series 666 Park Avenue in 2012.Theatrical rolesWilliams broadened her ascendant music career into a theatrical role when she was cast in the Broadway production of Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1994.
She was also featured in the Tony-nominated and Drama Desk Award nominated performance as the Witch in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods in a revival of the show in 2002, which included songs revised for her.Other notable theatrical roles include her performances in Carmen Jones at the Kennedy Center, the off-Broadway productions of One Man Band and Checkmates, and the New York City Center's Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert, St.
Louis Woman.
In 2010, Williams starred in a new Broadway musical revue entitled Sondheim on Sondheim, a look at Stephen Sondheim through his music, film and videotaped interviews.
Sondheim ran from March 19 to June 13 at Studio 54 in New York City.
As of April 26, 2013, Williams starred as Jessie Mae Watts in the Horton Foote play The Trip to Bountiful.
Based on the 1985 movie of the same name, this production is scheduled to run from April 26 to July 7, 2013, at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre in New York City.
Starting April 1, 2014, Williams will be a special guest star of the Broadway musical After Midnight at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.
Her run will last through May 11, and follows other celebrity features including K.D.
Lang and Toni Braxton.
Feature film rolesWilliams has appeared in several feature films.
Her most prominent role was in the 1997 film Soul Food, for which she won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture.
Williams appeared in the 1991 cult classic film Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man.
She also co-starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie Eraser and opposite Chayanne in Dance with Me.In 2007, Williams returned to the big screen starring in two independent motion pictures, the first being My Brother, for which she won Best Actress honors at the Harlem International Film Festival, the African-American Women in Cinema Film Festival and at the Santa Barbara African Heritage Film Festival, and the second being And Then Came Love.
In 2009, she starred alongside Miley Cyrus in Hannah Montana: The Movie.
Williams stars as Janice in the movie Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor.TelevisionWilliams' first television appearance was on a 1984 episode of The Love Boat, playing herself.
She subsequently made guest appearances on a number of shows, including T.J.
Hooker, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Saturday Night Live, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, LateLine, MADtv, Ally McBeal and Boomtown.Her appearances in television movies and miniseries include Perry Mason: The Case of the Silenced Singer and The Jacksons: An American Dream as Suzanne de Passe.
In 1995, Williams starred as Rose Alvares in a television version of Bye Bye Birdie, a Broadway musical from the 1950s.
She played the nymph Calypso in the 1997 Hallmark Entertainment miniseries The Odyssey, starring Armand Assante.
She appeared as Ebony Scrooge the Ebenezer Scrooge character in an update of Charles Dickens' story A Christmas Carol called A Diva's Christmas Carol.
In 2001, Williams starred in the Lifetime cable movie about the life of Henriette DeLille, The Courage to Love.
In 2003, Williams read the narrative of Tempie Herndon Durham from the WPA slave narratives in the HBO documentary Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives.
In early 2006 she starred in the short-lived UPN drama South Beach.
In 2006, Williams received considerable media attention for her comic/villainess role as former model/magazine creative director turned editor-in-chief Wilhelmina Slater in the ABC comedy series Ugly Betty.
Her performance on the series resulted in a nomination for outstanding supporting actress at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards.
She also provides the voice for the main character in the PBS Kids version of Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies.
In 2008 and 2009, she was again nominated for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series for Ugly Betty.Williams joined the cast of Desperate Housewives for the seventh season.
Williams portrays Renee Perry, an old college friend/rival of Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman), as the new vixen on Wisteria Lane, moving into the late Edie Britt's old house.
In 2012 she began starring in the ABC supernatural drama series 666 Park Avenue.Other media appearancesWilliams has appeared in advertisements for RadioShack.
She is a spokesmodel for Proactiv Solution, and was the first African-American spokesmodel for L'Oréal cosmetics in the late 1990s.
Her other media appearances include endorsing Crest Rejuvenating Effects Toothpaste, endorsing Disneyland and Universal Studios in a VisitCalifornia advertisement for British and Irish television in 2008, and hosting the 6th Annual 2008 TV Land Awards show.She appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 2000 as a contestant, and once again on August 10, 2009, as a celebrity guest during the show's 10th anniversary prime-time special editions, winning $50,000 for her charity.
In a commercial that began running during Super Bowl XLVI in 2012, Williams voiced the new character Ms.
Brown, a brown M&M.Name conflictWilliams is most often referenced and publicly recognized simply as "Vanessa Williams".
There is, however, occasional confusion with similarly named actress Vanessa A.
Williams, who is just two months younger.
It has been reported that Williams first became aware of Vanessa A.
in the 1980s when her New York University registrar told her that another, similarly aged student with the same name and from the same state had applied.
When Williams appeared as Miss America in a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Vanessa A.
accidentally received her check for the appearance, which she returned.In the area of acting, the two ran into name conflict when Screen Actors Guild rules prohibited duplicate stage naming.
Vanessa A.
had registered the name "Vanessa Williams" first, so as a compromise, Williams was occasionally credited as "Vanessa L.
Williams" in acting credits.
To compound the confusion, both actresses starred in versions of the drama Soul Food (Williams in the film version, and Vanessa A.
in its TV series adaptation).
The Screen Actors Guild eventually took the issue to arbitration and decided that both actresses could use the professional name "Vanessa Williams".
Today, Williams' prominence has led to a more prevailing association with the stage name "Vanessa Williams", so much so that it has widely become solely attributable to her.
She is credited as such in the American television series Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives.
Williams is also the owner of the internet domain name vanessawilliams.com.
Today, the younger Vanessa Williams is most often publicly and professionally referenced as "Vanessa A.
Williams".Personal lifeShe has been married twice.
Her first marriage, to public relations consultant Ramon Hervey II, was from 1987 to 1997.
Hervey later became Williams' manager.
The couple had two daughters, Melanie (born June 30, 1987) and Jillian (born June 19, 1989), and one son, Devin (born April 14, 1993).
William's daughter Jillian, following in her mother's footsteps, released her first single with the duo Lion Babe in 2012.Her second marriage was to NBA basketball player Rick Fox.
They married in September 1999 and have a daughter, Sasha, born on May 1, 2000.
After The National Enquirer published pictures of Fox kissing and hugging another woman in mid-2004, Fox's representative announced that the couple had been "headed toward divorce" for over a year.
A few months later in August 2004, Fox filed for divorce.
Fox acted alongside Williams in two episodes during the second season of Ugly Betty, playing the role of Dwayne, Wilhelmina's sexy bodyguard.During an interview with Barbara Walters which aired on February 24, 2008, Williams not only admitted to using Botox but also called it "a miracle drug, no cutting, nothing, and I love it.
But I also want to act so I don't do it to freeze my face." Williams is a practicing Roman Catholic.
Williams and her mother, Helen, co-authored a memoir entitled You Have No Idea, published in April 2012.
In the book, Williams discusses her childhood, rise to fame, and personal struggles, including the fact that she was sexually molested by a woman when she was 10 years old.
She also spoke candidly about her decision to have an abortion as a teenager.
Williams is a supporter of gay rights and same sex marriage and in 2011, she participated in a HRC campaign entitled “New Yorkers for Marriage Equality".