Phylicia Rashad (/fɪˈliːʃərəˈʃɑːd/fih-LEE-shə rə-SHAHD) (néeAyers-Allen; born June 19, 1948) is an American actress. She was most recently dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University before her three-year contract ended in May 2024.[1] She is best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the sitcom The Cosby Show (1984–1992) which earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations in 1985 and 1986. She also played Ruth Lucas on Cosby (1996–2000).
She has appeared in the films For Colored Girls (2010), Good Deeds (2012), Creed (2015), Creed II (2018), Creed III (2023), and The Beekeeper (2024). She also voiced Brenda Glover on the Nick Jr. animated children's educational television series Little Bill (1999–2004). In the 21st century, she has directed revivals of three plays by August Wilson, in major theaters in Seattle, Princeton, New Jersey; and Los Angeles.
Early life and education
Phylicia Ayers-Allen was born on June 19, 1948, in Houston, Texas.[5] Her mother, Vivian Ayers, is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated artist, poet, playwright, scholar, and publisher. Her father, Andrew Arthur Allen, was an orthodontist.[6][7] Her siblings are brother Tex (Andrew Arthur Allen Jr.), a jazz-musician; sister Debbie Allen, an actress, choreographer, and director; and brother Hugh Allen, now a real estate banker in Charlotte, North Carolina. Their parents divorced when Phylicia was six.[8] Seven years later, her mother moved with the two sisters to Mexico City, Mexico, to avoid segregation in the United States.[8] Ayers-Allen later studied at Howard University, graduating magna cum laude in 1970 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. While there, she was initiated into the Alpha Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.[9]
Career
1971–1983: Early work and Broadway debut
Ayers-Allen first became known for her roles on stage, making her Broadway debut in the Melvin Van Peebles musical Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death (1971). Throughout the decade she returned to Broadway in a string of productions playing Deena Jones in Dreamgirls (she also was Sheryl Lee Ralph's understudy until leaving the show in 1982, after being passed over as Ralph's full-time replacement).[10] She played a Munchkin in The Wiz for three and a half years.[11] In 1978, she released the album Josephine Superstar, a discoconcept album telling the life story of Josephine Baker.[12] The album was mainly written and produced by Jacques Morali and Victor Willis, Rashad's second husband and the original lead singer and lyricist of the Village People. She met Willis while they were both cast in The Wiz.
Rashad at the 2007 Red Dress Collection for The Heart Truth Foundation
Rashad played "Kill Moves"' wealthy mother on the Chris Rock created sitcomEverybody Hates Chris on December 9, 2007. In 2007 she appeared as Winnie Guster in the Psych episode "Gus's Dad May Have Killed an Old Guy". She returned to the role in 2008, in the episode "Christmas Joy".[19] In February 2008, Rashad portrayed Lena Younger in the television film adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun, directed by Kenny Leon. It starred core members of the cast of the 2004 Broadway revival at the Royale Theatre of Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 play, including Audra McDonald as Ruth Younger, and Sean Combs as Walter Lee Younger. The television film adaption debuted at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and was broadcast by ABC on February 25, 2008.[20] According to Nielsen Media Research, the program was watched by 12.7 million viewers and ranked No. 9 in the ratings for the week ending March 2, 2008.[21]
In 2009, she appeared as Violet Weston, the drug-addicted matriarch of Tracy Letts's award-winning play August: Osage County, at the Music Box Theatre. Rashad returned to directing August Wilson's work in early 2014, when she led a revival of Wilson's Fences, at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey. It received generally positive reviews. She continued to focus on Wilson's work, including a well-received production of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, which she directed at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in late 2016.[22] From March 17 to May 1, 2016, Rashad played the lead role of Shelah in Tarell Alvin McCraney's play Head of Passes at The Public Theater. Her performance was positively reviewed.[23] In November 2010, Rashad featured as Gilda in the ensemble cast in the Tyler Perry film For Colored Girls, based on the play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange. Rashad said about this work in an interview with Vibe Movies & TV in 2010: "I saw the original Broadway play. I thought it was amazing how such a story that wasn't pretty was poetry. Usually poetry is about lofty things and this was the poetry of speech and the movement of everyday people. I found a little bit of it off-putting to tell you the truth, because it was so angry when I saw it. And I think Tyler Perry has added an element here that wasn't in the original stage production, and that is the necessity for taking responsibility for one's own self otherwise you are just living to die. That is where he wrote the line [in the film], 'You gotta take some responsibility in this. Otherwise you are just living to die.'"[24]
She was dubbed "The Mother of the Black Community" at the 2010 NAACP Image Awards.[38] In May 2021, Rashad was appointed as dean of Howard University's Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts.[39] In August 2023, Howard University announced Rashad was going to step down from the position of dean at the end of the 2023–24 academic year.[40]
Rashad also received an Honorary Doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University.
Personal life
Marriages and family
Rashad's first marriage, in 1972, was to dentist William Lancelot Bowles Jr. They had one son, William Lancelot Bowles III, who was born the following year. The marriage ended in 1975. Rashad married Victor Willis (original lead singer of the Village People) in 1978; they had met during the run of The Wiz. They divorced in 1982.
She married a third time, to Ahmad Rashad on December 14, 1985. He was a former NFLwide receiver and sportscaster. It was a third marriage for each of them, and she took his last name. He proposed to her during a pregame show for a nationally televised Thanksgiving Dayfootball game between the New York Jets and the Detroit Lions on November 28, 1985.[41][42] Their daughter, Condola Phylea Rashād,[43] was born on December 11, 1986, in New York. The couple divorced in early 2001, and she has retained the surname Rashad.[44]
Friendship with Bill Cosby
In June 2021, her comments supporting the release of former co-star Bill Cosby from prison were criticized.[45] Some called for Howard University to revoke her appointment, and Howard University stated that "Personal positions of University leadership do not reflect Howard University's policies."[46] Rashad later apologized in an email to Howard University students and their parents.[47] Rashad faced widespread criticism after she posted the following tweet in support of Bill Cosby after he was released from jail on a technicality: "FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!" This support was characterized as rape apologism.[48]
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