Shelley Ackerman (October 14, 1953 – February 27, 2020) was an American astrologer, writer, actress and singer. She was a frequent guest and commentator on radio and television news and entertainment shows.
She began her career at age 17 as a comedic singer (and waitress) at The Improvisation and at age 19 at Catch a Rising Star in New York. She worked at both through the early 1980s, and at the same time performed in NY's major cabaret rooms including: Playboy Club, Continental Baths, Reno Sweeney's, Les Mouches, The Grand Finale, Freddy's Supper Club, Ted Hook's OnStage, and Lox Around the Clock. [citation needed]
She studied with Stella Adler in the early 1980s, and appeared at the 92nd Street Y in New York in the prestigious Lyrics and Lyricists program in 1985, directed by Maurice Levine. It was there that she caught the eye (and ear) of Elly Stone, who remembered her voice in 1987 when she and her husband Eric Blau (who translated Brel's Flemish lyrics into English) were casting for their upcoming 20th anniversary production of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. [citation needed]
Ackerman claimed to have been born with the ability to remember birthdates and developed her interest in astrology in her early teens. In 1974 she and her then-boyfriend, Richard Belzer, obtained their first computerized astrological charts from Astroflash, a small booth set up in Grand Central Terminal in New York City that offered the earliest computer-generated horoscopes. Her interest grew through the 1970s and as an amateur astrologer she collected data (birth dates, times, and places) of her fellow performers between shows at both The Improv and Catch a Rising Star. [citation needed]
Her first position as an astrologer was at Gurney's Inn in Montauk, New York on the July 4 weekend of 1992, and she made her first major contribution to the astrological community later that summer by obtaining Bill Clinton's birthtime from his mother Virginia Kelley.[3]
