Sherri Shepherd

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

Sherri Evonne Shepherd (born on April 22 1967 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American comedian, actress and a 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.

Early life

Shepherd was born in Chicago. At age 11, her family, which includes Shepherd's three sisters, moved to Hoffman Estates, a Chicago suburb. Raised in a Jehovah's Witness family, Shepherd later chose to become a born-again Christian in her adulthood after moving to Los Angeles, California.

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, she pursued acting and stand-up comedy full-time, working again as a legal secretary in the meantime. She had guest roles on Friends, Living Single, 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.

Other credits

Shepherd has branched out to film, with roles in Guess Who, Beauty Shop and Cellular. She still performs standup 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.

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. A week before Shepherd became the shows fifth co-host, Barbara Walters announced that there would be a surprise permanent host. Online speculation within the blogosphere that Shepherd would become a permanent co-host of the show had persisted from as early as January 2007.

Criticized statements

Shepherd was criticized heavily after the September 18, 2007 broadcast of The View., 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", the co-star of two network programs 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.

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".

Personal life

Shepherd is married to comedian Jeff Tarpley (aka Jeff T. Aware); they have a son, Jeffrey Charles. 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.

External links

• Official site
• Sherri Shepherd interview