Wanda Sykes Actress -
Born March 7, 1964 in Portsmouth, Virginia, USA
Birth Name Wanda Yvette Sykes
Height 5' 2" (1.57 m)
Mini Bio (1) Wanda Sykes has been called one of the funniest stand-up comics by her peers and ranks among Entertainment Weekly's 25 Funniest People in America. Her smart-witted stand-up has sent her career in many different areas.
She was recently seen in Comedy Central's Wanda Does It (2004), where she tried various non-showbiz jobs. Her first book, "Yeah I Said It," published by Simon and Schuster, hit bookstores in September 2004, which is a hilarious collection of essays touching on life, family, and current events.
In 2003, she was seen on Fox's Wanda at Large (2003), in which she wrote, produced, and starred. She also has a one-hour Comedy Central special called Wanda Sykes: Tongue Untied (2003). In addition, she can be seen on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000) or heard on Comedy Central's Crank Yankers (2002) as the voice of Gladys Murphy.
Wanda was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, and raised in Maryland, the daughter of Marion Louise (Peoples), a banker, and Harry Ellsworth Sykes, a US Army colonel. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Hampton University. Her stand-up career began at a Coors Light Super talent Showcase in Washington, DC, where she performed for the first time in front of a live audience.
She spent 5 years as part of the HBO's critically acclaimed The Chris Rock Show (1997). As a performer and writer on the show, she was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards and in 1999 won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Special. In 2001, she won the American Comedy Award for Outstanding Female Stand-Up Comic. She won a second Emmy in 2002 for her work on Inside the NFL (1977). In 2003, Wanda earned a Comedy Central Commie Award for Funniest TV Actress. Other writing credits include the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards (1999), The MTV Movie Awards, The 74th Annual Academy Awards (2002), The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show (1997), and Wanda at Large (2003).
She also appeared in the feature films Pootie Tang (2001), Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000), Down to Earth (2001), and Monster-in-Law (2005).
- IMDb Mini Biography By: PMK/HBH
Alex Niedbalski (25 October 2008 - present) 2 children Twins F1. Olivia Lou Sykes (27 April 2009) M2. Lucas Claude Sykes (27 April 2009)
David Hall (1991 - 1998) divorced
Trade Mark (1) Has a sassy sounding voice
Received a Bachelor of Sciences degree in marketing from Hampton University.
Raised in the Maryland-Washington, DC, area.
Her stand-up career began at a Super Talent Showcase in Washington, DC, where she performed for the first time in front of a live audience.
She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated.
Ranked #70 in Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time, the only Black woman to make the list.
Worked as a procurement officer at the National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade in Laurel, Maryland from college graduation in 1986 until 1992.
Came out as gay on November 15, 2008, at a pro-gay marriage rally in Las Vegas hosted by the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) Center of Southern Nevada. At that rally, she also publicly announced for the first time that she has a wife, to whom she was married in California on October 25, 2008.
Has 2 children: daughter, Olivia Lou Sykes & son, Lucas Claude Sykes (b. April 27, 2009) with wife, Alex Niedbalski.
In 2009, she made history as the first African-American master of ceremonies at the White House Correspondents' dinner.
In September 2011, Sykes revealed that earlier in the year, she had gone in for breast reduction surgery and discovered that she had very early-stage breast cancer. Because of a history of breast cancer in her family, she decided to have a bilateral mastectomy (both breasts removed).
Friends with Steve Harvey.
Grew up in a military family.
[on The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2003) after the passage of Proposition 8, which took away the right to gay marriage in California] Here in California, the one that's important to me is Prop 8. What broke my heart, you know--I'm watching the news, and there were, you know, like, a lot of the black churches got together, and they were rallying, you know, they were FOR Prop 8; I'm like, come on--it's discrimination! I mean, discrimination is discrimination. And of all people, black people should know discrimination and you're going to vote and get discrimination in the Constitution? I mean, that's . . . I know African-Americans, they get upset. They're like, "Black and gay, that's totally different things. We had it hard." And I'm like, "Yeah, I get it. I'm black. I know. I get it". You know. But there's things that gay people have to go through that black people didn't have to go through. I never had to come out black. Never had to sit my family down and tell them about my blackness. Have a little talk with my employer, let him know about my "black lifestyle". Mom, dad, I gotta tell you something. Hope you still love me. I'm black. You know, and my mother: "Not black, Lord! Anything but black, Jesus! Anything but black! What did I do, what did I do? It was Soul Train (1971), wasn't it? I shouldn't have let you watch 'Soul Train'." "No, ma, that's just me--I mean, I just feel like I was born black". "No, you weren't born black. The bible says Adam and Eve; it doesn't say Adam and Mary J. Blige".
[on the Ellen Degeneres show, talking about revealing that she had breast cancer and a double mastectomy] I was like I don't know, should I talk about it or what. How many things could I have? I'm black, then lesbian. I can't be the poster child for everything.
If you feel like there's something out there that you're supposed to be doing, of you have a passion for it, then stop wishing and just do it.
[on the upcoming 2016 US federal election] I think they should make everyone vote. Everyone should have to vote. Maybe everyone gets a Powerball ticket if you vote. I don't know. Vote and you get a scratch-off.
Kids get in the way of the couple. It's hard to be a couple and then kids come and shatter that whole thing. You have to work hard to be a couple. If something happens in the night, we have to put our pajamas on like we're volunteer firemen.
Wanda Yvette Sykes (born March 7, 1964) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. 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. In 2004, Entertainment Weekly named Sykes as one of the 25 funniest people in America. She is also known for her roles on CBS' The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006–10), HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm (2001–11), and ABC's Black-ish (2015–present). She currently stars in the Netflix original series The Upshaws which premiered on May 12, 2021, with Kim Fields and Mike Epps.
Personal life Sykes was married to record producer Dave Hall from 1991 to 1998. In November 2008, she publicly came out as a lesbian while at a same-sex marriage rally in Las Vegas regarding Proposition 8. A month earlier, Sykes married her wife Alex Niedbalski, a French woman, whom she met in 2006. The couple also became parents in April 2009, when Niedbalski gave birth to a pair of fraternal twins, a daughter and a son, named Olivia and Lucas.
Sykes only came out to her conservative mother Marion and father Harry when she was 40, who both initially had difficulty accepting her homosexuality. They declined to attend her wedding with Alex, which led to a brief period of estrangement; they have since reconciled with Sykes.
During a September 19, 2011, appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Sykes announced that she had been diagnosed earlier in the year with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). Although DCIS is a non-invasive "stage zero breast cancer", Sykes had elected to have a bilateral mastectomy in order to lower her chances of getting breast cancer. Sykes splits time between Media, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, and Cherry Grove, New York.
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