Who Is Jenifer Lewis?
An American entertainer, singer, comedian, and activist by the name of Jenifer Jeanette Lewis were born on January 25, 1957. Before acting in the movies Beaches 1988 and Sister Act, she started her career performing in Broadway musicals and backing up Bette Midler (1992). Lewis is renowned for portraying mothers in the films Think Like a Man (2012) and its sequel Think Like a Man Too (2014), Baggage Claim (2013), The Wedding Ringer (2015), and The Temptations miniseries.
Lewis is best known for portraying mothers in the movies Think As a Man (2012) and its sequel Think Like a Man Too (2014), Baggage Claim (2013), The Wedding Ringer (2015), and The Temptations miniseries.
Lewis frequently plays matriarchal characters in movies and television, earning her the unofficial moniker “The Mother of Black Hollywood” (also the title of her memoir). She also delivered the voices for Flo in the Pixar Cars series and Mama Odie in the 2009 Disney animated film The Princess and the Frog. Additional movie parts can be found in the 1995 films Dead Presidents, Cast Away, and Hereafter (2010).
From 2000 through 2006, Lewis appeared on television in the Lifetime medical series Strong Medicine playing Lana Hawkins. On the sitcoms A Different World, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and Girlfriends, she also had recurring parts. Lewis started playing Ruby Johnson in the ABC comedy series Black-ish in 2014, for which she was nominated for two Critics’ Choice Television Awards.
Jenifer Lewis Early life
Lewis was born in Kinloch, Missouri, to an industrial worker father and Dorothy, a nurse’s assistant. The youngest of 7 kids is Lewis. At the age of five, she began singing in the church choir.
After high school, she went to Webster University in Webster Groves, Missouri, for college. In 2015, she was awarded an honorary degree from Webster University. Lewis relocated to New York after graduating from college to concentrate on her performance career.
Jenifer Lewis Career
Lewis made her Broadway premiere in 1979’s Eubie, a musical based on Eubie Blake’s writing, not long after moving to New York City. She had a minor role in the production. She then landed the part of Effie White in the musical Dreamgirls’ workshop under the direction of Michael Bennett, but when the production transferred to Broadway, Bennett cast Jennifer Holliday in the part. [Reference needed]
Lewis made his first Television appearances on Midler’s HBO programs after agreeing to work as a Harlette, Bette Midler’s backup singer. As a result, she landed her first on-screen appearance, singing in the Otto Titsling production number in the Bette Midler movie Beaches (1988).
Lewis was also creating The Diva Is Dismissed, an autobiographical comedy and music performance in New York City cabarets, as her nightclub act. She performed the play at the Public Theater off-Broadway.
Personal life
Lewis and Arnold Byrd have been married since 2012. Charmaine Lewis, her adopted daughter, is her name.
Lewis was given a bipolar illness diagnosis in 1990. After 17 years of counseling and 10 years of medication, she gradually learned to accept her diagnosis after first hiding it because she felt ashamed of it.
She now accepts her diagnosis and advises others to do the same, saying, “You have to look in the mirror… and say—before you can go or grow into anything—you have to say you love yourself.
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FAQ
1. What is Jenifer Lewis famous for?
Lewis frequently plays matriarchal characters in movies and television, earning her the unofficial title “The Mother of Black Hollywood” (also the title of her memoir). She also performed the voices for Flo in the Pixar Cars series and Mama Odie in the 2009 Disney animated movie The Princess and the Frog.
2. Where is Jennifer Lewis from?
A city in Missouri’s St. Louis County is called Kinloch. 298 people were counted in the population in 2010. Kinloch, the first African-American village in Missouri to be organized, was the center of a vibrant black community for most of the 19th and 20th centuries.
