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Phylicia Rashad
Phylicia Rashad (/fɪˈlɪʃə rəˈʃɑːd/ fil-ISH-ə rə-SHAHD; née Ayers-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. Known for her roles on stage and screen, she has received two Tony Awards as well as nominations for six Primetime Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
She is best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show (1984–1992) which earned her two Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series nominations in 1985 and 1986. She also played Ruth Lucas on Cosby (1996–2000), and Brenda Glover in Little Bill (1999–2004). She was also Emmy-nominated for her roles in A Raisin in the Sun (2008) and This Is Us (2019–2021).
On stage, Rashad became the first Black actress to win the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, for a revival of A Raisin in the Sun (2004). She won her second Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for Dominique Morisseau's Skeleton Crew (2022). Her other Broadway credits include Into the Woods (1988), Jelly's Last Jam (1993), Gem of the Ocean (2004), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2008).
She has appeared in various films such as For Colored Girls (2010), Good Deeds (2012), Creed (2015), Creed II (2018), Creed III (2023), and The Beekeeper (2024). She lent her voice to the Disney-Pixar animated film Soul (2020).
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. She also directed Purpose (play) in its 2024-2025 run at the Helen Hayes Theater on Broadway.
Phylicia Ayers-Allen was born on June 19, 1948, in Houston, Texas. Her mother, Vivian Ayers Allen, was an artist, poet, playwright, scholar, and publisher. Her father, Andrew Arthur Allen, was an orthodontist. 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. Seven years later, her mother moved with Phylicia and her sister to Mexico City, Mexico, to avoid the racial segregation in the United States. Ayers-Allen later returned to the US to study 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.
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). She played a Munchkin in The Wiz for three and a half years. In 1978, she released the album Josephine Superstar, a disco concept album telling the life story of Josephine Baker. 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.
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Phylicia Rashad
Phylicia Rashad (/fɪˈlɪʃə rəˈʃɑːd/ fil-ISH-ə rə-SHAHD; née Ayers-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. Known for her roles on stage and screen, she has received two Tony Awards as well as nominations for six Primetime Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
She is best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show (1984–1992) which earned her two Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series nominations in 1985 and 1986. She also played Ruth Lucas on Cosby (1996–2000), and Brenda Glover in Little Bill (1999–2004). She was also Emmy-nominated for her roles in A Raisin in the Sun (2008) and This Is Us (2019–2021).
On stage, Rashad became the first Black actress to win the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, for a revival of A Raisin in the Sun (2004). She won her second Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for Dominique Morisseau's Skeleton Crew (2022). Her other Broadway credits include Into the Woods (1988), Jelly's Last Jam (1993), Gem of the Ocean (2004), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2008).
She has appeared in various films such as For Colored Girls (2010), Good Deeds (2012), Creed (2015), Creed II (2018), Creed III (2023), and The Beekeeper (2024). She lent her voice to the Disney-Pixar animated film Soul (2020).
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. She also directed Purpose (play) in its 2024-2025 run at the Helen Hayes Theater on Broadway.
Phylicia Ayers-Allen was born on June 19, 1948, in Houston, Texas. Her mother, Vivian Ayers Allen, was an artist, poet, playwright, scholar, and publisher. Her father, Andrew Arthur Allen, was an orthodontist. 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. Seven years later, her mother moved with Phylicia and her sister to Mexico City, Mexico, to avoid the racial segregation in the United States. Ayers-Allen later returned to the US to study 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.
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). She played a Munchkin in The Wiz for three and a half years. In 1978, she released the album Josephine Superstar, a disco concept album telling the life story of Josephine Baker. 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.
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