Wanda Sykes was born in Portsmouth, Virginia.[4] Her family moved to Maryland when she was in the third grade.[5] Her mother, Marion Louise (née Peoples), worked as a banker, and her father, Harry Ellsworth Sykes, was a U.S. Army colonel employed at the Pentagon.[6]
Sykes' family history was researched for an episode of the 2012 PBS genealogy program Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr. Her ancestry was traced back to a 1683 court case involving her ancestor, Elizabeth Banks, a free white woman and indentured servant, who gave birth to a biracial child, Mary Banks, fathered by a slave, who inherited her mother's free status. According to historian Ira Berlin, a specialist in the history of American slavery, the Sykes family history is "the only such case that I know of in which it is possible to trace a black family rooted in freedom from the late 17th century to the present."[7]
Following a role with the National Security Agency (NSA), Sykes began her stand-up career at a Coors Light Super Talent Showcase in Washington, D.C., where she performed for the first time in front of a live audience in 1987.[10]
In 1997, she joined the writing team on The Chris Rock Show[12] and also made many appearances on the show. The writing team was nominated for four Emmys, and in 1999, won for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Special.
In October 2008, Sykes appeared in a television ad for the Think Before You Speak Campaign, an advertising campaign by GLSEN aimed at curbing homophobic slang in youth communities. In the 30-second spot, she uses humor to scold a teenager for saying "that's so gay" when he really means "that is so bad".[25][26] In March 2009, Sykes became the host of a late-night talk show on Saturdays on Fox, The Wanda Sykes Show which was scheduled to premiere November 7, 2009.[27][28] In April 2009, she was named in Out magazine's "Annual Power 50 List", landing at number 35.
In May 2009, Sykes was the featured entertainer for the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner, becoming both the first African American woman and the first openly LGBT person to get the role. Cedric the Entertainer had been the first African American to become the featured entertainer in 2005. At this event, Sykes made controversial headlines as she responded to conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh's comments regarding President Barack Obama. Limbaugh, in reference to Obama's presidential agenda, had said "I hope he fails". In response, Sykes quipped: "I hope his [Limbaugh's] kidneys fail, how 'bout that? Needs a little waterboarding, that's what he needs."[29][30] Her second comedy special, Wanda Sykes: I'ma Be Me premiered on HBO in October 2009.[28] November 2009 saw the premier of The Wanda Sykes Show, which starts with a monologue and continues with a panel discussion in a similar format to Bill Maher's shows Real Time with Bill Maher and Politically Incorrect.
2010s
She appeared as Miss Hannigan in a professional theatre production of Annie at The Media Theatre in Media, PA, a suburb southwest of Philadelphia. Her first appearance in a musical, she played the role from November 23 to December 12, 2010, and again from January 12 to 23, 2011.[28] She voices the Witch in the Bubble Guppies episode "Bubble Puppy's Fin-tastic Fairlytale Adventure". In 2012, Sykes played the role of Granny in Blue Sky Studios' Ice Age: Continental Drift. In 2016, she returned to the role in Ice Age: Collision Course. In May 2013, Sykes was a featured entertainer at Olivia Travel's 40th anniversary Music & Comedy Festival in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.[31]
In 2013, Sykes appeared in eight episodes of Amazon's Alpha House, a political comedy series written by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau.[32] Sykes plays Rosalyn DuPeche, a Democratic Senator from Illinois and the next door neighbor of four Republican senators living together in a house on Capitol Hill. Sykes also appeared in Season Two, which became available in October 2014. The series was canceled after the second season. In 2018, Sykes became the head writer for the revived tenth season of Roseanne.[33] This attracted attention due to star Roseanne Barr's history of controversial political remarks.[34] On May 29, 2018, Sykes announced on Twitter that she would no longer be working on the series after a since-deleted Twitter rant by Roseanne Barr about Valerie Jarrett; Roseanne was subsequently canceled by ABC.[35][36]
2020s
In 2021, Sykes began starring on the Netflix sitcom The Upshaws.[37] Sykes co-hosted the 94th Academy Awards with Regina Hall and Amy Schumer on March 27, 2022.[38] The telecast is most known for its infamous moment where Will SmithslappedChris Rock. Sykes condemned the actions of Smith stating on Ellen
"For [The Academy] to let him stay in that room and enjoy the rest of the show and accept his award, I was like, 'How gross is this? This is just the wrong message.' You assault somebody, you get escorted out of the building and that's it. For them to let him continue, I thought it was gross".[39]
Sykes was married to record producer Dave Hall from 1991 to 1998.[10] In November 2008, she publicly came out as a lesbian while at a same-sex marriage rally in Las Vegas regarding Proposition 8.[10][41] A month earlier, Sykes married her wife Alex Niedbalski, a French woman,[42] whom she met in 2006. The couple also became parents in April 2009, when Niedbalski gave birth to a pair of fraternal twins.[43]
Sykes only came out to her conservative mother Marion and father Harry in 2004 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.[44]
Sykes publicly expressed being devastated when California voters passed state Proposition 8. She said: "with the legislation that they passed, I can't sit by and just watch. I just can't do it."[49][50] She has continued to be active in same-sex marriage issues hosting events and emceeing fundraisers. She has also worked with PETA on promoting dog anti-chaining legislation in her home state.[51]
She has been an outspoken supporter of Detroit's Ruth Ellis Center after the organization's staff sent Sykes a letter asking her to visit during her 2010 tour's stop in Detroit.[52][53][54]
Sykes often uses Twitter to express her political views, including on May 25, 2021, retweeting a photograph by Evan Vucci of Gianna Floyd, daughter of George Floyd, entering the White House.[55] On July 17, 2021, she also tweeted, "Congress MUST pass the #ForThePeopleAct", and called on her followers to join the "Good Trouble Vigil", commemorating the passing of activist and Congressman John Lewis.[55]
Sykes has been nominated for seventeen Primetime Emmys, with one win (in 1999) for "Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music or Program." In 2001, she won the American Comedy Award for "Funniest Female Stand-Up Comic". She won a Comedy Central Commie Award for "Funniest TV Actress" in 2003.[63] In 2010 she won the GLAAD Stephen F. Kolzak Award.[64][65] In 2015 she won the Activism in the Arts honor at the Triumph Awards.[66]
List of awards and nominations received by Wanda Sykes
^Louis Gates, Henry (2015). Finding Your Roots: The Official Companion to the PBS Series. The University of North Carolina Press. p. 240. ISBN978-1-4696-2614-7.
.jpg.php){kind=link}
.jpg.php){kind=link}