Facts about Vanessa Williams
4 Good Links
Vanessa Williams Official
All about her careerVanessa Williams Interview
Radio chat from 2019Vanessa Williams: Music
Brief bio and discographyWhat Her Career Teaches Us
Short, positive profile from 2019Share this:
Vanessa Williams Biography
Light-eyed, sultry Vanessa Williams was the first African-American to win the Miss America crown (1983).
Williams was forced to turn in her tiara after Penthouse magazine published nude photos of her, but she bounced back with a successful career as a singer, starting with the 1988 dance-pop album The Right Stuff.
She also scored a hit with her album The Comfort Zone (1991), and the song “Colors of the Wind” from the Disney feature Pocahontas (1995).
The 1990s saw Williams branch out into Broadway and make a respectable go at the movies, playing semi-tough babes opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Eraser (1996) and Samuel L. Jackson in Shaft (2000).
She has since continued to record and has had a successful career in television, including guest shots, a 2003 series (Boomtown) and an Emmy-nominated role in Ugly Betty (2007, starring America Ferrera).
Extra credit
Williams attended Syracuse University… She is sometimes referred to as Vanessa L. Williams and is no relation to Vanessa Williams, the actress with the same name who appeared on the TV show Melrose Place. By coincidence, the former Miss America starred in the movie Soul Food (1997) while the second Ms. Williams starred in the cable TV series of the same name… In 1999 she married NBA player Rick Fox.