Sherri Shepherd

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Sherri Shepherd
Born	April 22, 1967 (1967-04-22) (age 41) Chicago, Illinois
Occupation	Co-host on The View
Spouse	Jeff Tarpley (-2007)
Children	Jeffrey Charles Tarpley
Website sherrishepherd.com

Sherri Evonne Shepherd (born April 22, 1967) is an Emmy-nominated American comedian, actress and current co-host on the ABC daytime talkshow, The View. In addition to stand-up shows and small roles in several American sitcoms, Shepherd had a regular supporting role in the ABC sitcom Less Than Perfect, during its four season run.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Other credits 3 Co-host on The View 3.1 Criticized statements 4 Personal life 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Early life

Shepherd was born in Chicago, Illinois. At age 11, her family, which includes Shepherd's three sisters, moved to Hoffman Estates, a Chicago suburb. She attended Winston Churchill Elementary School and Eisenhower Junior High School of Community Consolidated School District 54 and Hoffman Estates High School of District 211. Raised in a Jehovah's Witness family, Shepherd later became a born-again Christian, as an adult, after moving to Los Angeles.

[edit] Career

Shepherd worked a day job as a legal secretary while doing stand-up comedy at night. Her first TV role was on the show, Cleghorne!, starring former Saturday Night Live cast member, Ellen Cleghorne. Three years later, Shepherd pursued acting and stand-up comedy full-time, working again as a legal secretary for a day job. She had guest and recurring roles on, Friends, Living Single and, Everybody Loves Raymond, as well as regular roles on, Suddenly Susan and, The Jamie Foxx Show. Her most visible role was as, "Ramona Platt," on, Less Than Perfect. The sitcom ran on ABC for four seasons, with the last episodes airing in 2006. She is developing a half-hour scripted sitcom based on her life for The CW Network.

[edit] Other credits

Shepherd has branched out to film, with roles in, Guess Who, Beauty Shop and, Cellular. She still performs stand-up comedy at Los Angeles area clubs like, the Comedy Store, and the Laugh Factory. She has also been a frequent and popular guest on Ellen DeGeneres' syndicated daytime talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, for which she holds a record for being on the show the greatest number of times. She currently has a recurring role on, 30 Rock, as, "Angie Jordan," the wife of Tracy Morgan's character, "Tracy Jordan."

[edit] Co-host on The View

In 2007, Sherri Shepherd became a frequent guest co-host on ABC's, The View. On the morning of May 23, 2007, while guest hosting, Shepherd became caught in the middle of one of The View's more heated exchanges between full time hosts, and political opposites, Rosie O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. As the clash grew more heated, a visibly shaken Shepherd made several attempts to step in and stop the argument, calling for producers to cut to the next commercial break, only to be told they had more time before the segment was finished. Shepherd eventually pulled herself and regular host Joy Behar completely away from the table, before the bickering came to an end, with a stilted reference to Shepherd's latest comedy DVD offering.

Following these events, O'Donnell left the show, and along with Whoopi Goldberg, Gayle King, Kathy Griffin, Roseanne Barr and Mario Cantone, Shepherd was rumored to be in line to replace her. Eventually Goldberg was announced as the replacement moderator. Shepherd eventually became a permanent co-host on Monday September 10, 2007, after shaky salary negotiations, and attempts to hire Kathy Griffin as a cheaper alternative failed.^{[citation needed]} A week before Shepherd became the show's fifth co-host, Barbara Walters announced that there would be a surprise permanent host^{[citation needed]}. Online speculation within the blogosphere that Shepherd would become a permanent co-host of the show had persisted from as early as January 2007.^[1]

It was announced on The View, on May 27, 2008, that Shepherd would co-host the 35th Daytime Emmy Awards on June 20, 2008. Her fellow co-host is All My Children star and Dancing With The Stars alum Cameron Mathison, who was on the show to announce it. Shepherd is nominated for her first Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host.

[edit] Criticized statements

In an interview about co-hosting on The View, Shepherd admitted to putting her foot in her mouth a lot. When this was brought up on the The View, Shepherd's co-host, Whoopi Goldberg, admitted that Sherri needs to think more before speaking because a lot of what she says "just isn't appropriate!"^[2]

Shepherd was criticized heavily after the September 18, 2007 broadcast of The View,^[3] in which she stated that she didn't "believe in evolution. Period". She was asked by co-host Whoopi Goldberg, "Is the world flat?" She first responded, "…I don't know" and expanded that she "never thought about it". Shepherd continued that it was more important to her that she thought about how she was "going to feed [her] child". Barbara Walters replied to this defense of her scientific illiteracy, "You can do both." She then went on to quote scripture.^[4]

Similar criticism erupted after the December 4, 2007 broadcast of The View when, during a discussion initiated by Joy Behar about Epicurus, Shepherd attempted to assert that Christians existed in classical Greece, and that the Greeks threw them to the lions (see Persecution of early Christians by the Romans). When confronted on this point, she further claimed that "Jesus came first" (before Greeks and Romans) and stated "I don't think anything predated Christians".^[5][6]

Shepherd also garnered ridicule after admitting to never voting because she just “never knew the dates or anything”; she stated, "I've never voted for anything in my life".^[7][8]

[edit] Personal life

Shepherd is married to comedian Jeff Tarpley (aka Jeff T. Aware); they have a son, Jeffrey Charles, born April 22, 2005. Though on the road to divorce after discovering that her husband was having an affair, Sherri Shepherd reported on The View on May 23, 2007 that she and her husband were back together. Tarpley had a child during the affair and Shepherd said she thought it would be wrong to keep the children apart. However, on September 21, 2007, View watchers learned that the reconciliation, which included marriage counseling, did not go well: Shepherd noted during the show's Hot Topics segment that she and Tarpley are again separated and a divorce is under way.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Sherri Shepherd at the Internet Movie Database

Preceded by Star Jones

The View fifth co-host 2007-present

Succeeded by incumbent

v • d • e Co-Hosts of The View Current Whoopi Goldberg · Joy Behar · Elisabeth Hasselbeck · Sherri Shepherd · Barbara Walters Former Debbie Matenopoulos · Lisa Ling · Meredith Vieira · Star Jones · Rosie O'Donnell