Sheryl Lee Ralph - Biography

Triple threat DREAMGIRL, Sheryl Lee Ralph is an acclaimed veteran of film, television and the Broadway stage. 

Her award winning body of work includes originating and creating the role of Deena Jones on Broadway in the landmark musical Dreamgirls, earning her Tony and Drama Desk Award Nominations for Best Actress, and a place in theatre history.

She is an honored AIDS activist who strongly believes that the number one reason most people with HIV/AIDS don't tell people they have HIV/AIDS is because most people don't know they have it. They haven’t been tested.  She is the founding director of the DIVA (AIDS) Foundation 501C3 which she created in memory of the many friends she has lost to HIV/AIDS. She also produces the longest consecutive running musical AIDS fundraiser in America, DIVAS Simply Singing! Which is now in it’s eighteenth year. Ms. Ralph sits on the boards of Project Angel Food and The Black AIDS Institute and is the celebrity spokesperson for the National Minority AIDS Council.

After Dreamgirls, Ms. Ralph turned her attention to music, television and film. She scored a top-ten selling dance hit in the mid-eighties with the infectious anthem In the Evening, which continues to be remixed by DJs around the world.

On television, she has starred in It's a Living, her own series New Attitude, the George Foreman series George and she starred as Las Vegas showgirl turned Anthony's wife in the hit comedy Designing Women. Voted one of TV's Favorite Moms for her portrayal of step mom with the mostest, Dee on UPN's hit series Moesha, she also broke new ground in the SHOWTIME series, Barbershop as the beautiful, post-operative transsexual, Claire; and brought a memorable new face to war on ER.

Her extensive film credits include The Mighty Quinn with Denzel Washington, Mistress with Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy's Distinguished Gentleman and Sister Act II with Whoopi Goldberg, Piece of the Action with Sidney Poitier and The Flintstones. Sheryl Lee's performance with Danny Glover in To Sleep With Anger won her the Independent Spirit Award for best supporting actress. She has made magic in the HBO original film Witch Hunt, with Dennis Hopper, directed by Norman Jewison and Deterence with Timothy Hutton and Kevin Polack.

As a producer, Ms. Ralph created the critically acclaimed Divas Simply Singing!, an award winning staged evening of song and entertainment featuring some of the most talented females in the entertainment industry. This annual event has raised millions of dollars and become one of the most important and highly anticipated AIDS benefits in Hollywood.  She is also the founding creator of The Jamerican Film & Music Festival which in five years has given birth to five SHOWTIME Filmmaker Finalists.

Sheryl Lee has found new success in writing and directing.  Her critically acclaimed thought provoking one-woman show, "Sometimes I Cry",was inspired by the real life stories of women who are infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. Sheryl Lee breaths life into these culturally diverse women through word, movement, and song exposing how each woman copes with her new reality. 

Ms. Ralph wrote and directed the award-winning film short Secrets. With an all-star cast that includes Oscar nominee Alfre Woodard, Victoria Rowell, La Tanya Richardson, Robin Givens and Ralph herself, this powerful dramedy was a finalist in the SHOWTIME Filmmakers Series, the HBO Film Short Competition in the Acapulco Black Film Festival, the Hollywood Film Festival, the Pan African Film Festival, Urban World Film Festival and the audience favorite at the Outfest Film Festival. Secrets also had the honor of screening in the Toronto International Film Festival.

Mother of two, with a blended family of four, Sheryl Lee married State Senator Vincent Hughes of Pennsylvania in what Entertainment Tonight called, "the most elegant and romantic wedding!" She acknowledges that love is the greatest gift to be given and shared.