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

Sherri Evonne Shepherd (born on April 22, 1967 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American talk show host, comedian and actress. On September 10, 2007, Shepherd was announced as the fifth panelist of ABC's The View. Shepherd is also known for her roles on the TV shows Less Than Perfect and Everybody Loves Raymond, as well as her extensive work in television commercials.

Personal life

Shepherd was born in Chicago. At age 11, her family, which includes Shepherd's three sisters, moved to Hoffman Estates, a Chicago suburb, where Sherri enjoyed riding bikes with one of her younger sisters, Sierra. Raised a Jehovah's Witness, Shepherd later became a born-again Christian after moving to Los Angeles.

Shepherd is married to comedian Jeff Tarpley; 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.

Career

Shepherd worked a "day job" as a legal secretary while doing standup 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.

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 most amount of times.

The View

Sherri Shepherd has also become 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, ironically with a stilted reference to Shepherd's latest comedy DVD offering.

Shepherd became the new fifth co-host of The View on Monday September 10, 2007. A week before, Barbara Walters announced that there would be a surprise permanent host, and it was speculated to be Shepherd.

A notable joke was made by Shepherd on the September 14 edition of the View. The joke was about her husband, whom she is currently separated from. In a harmless discussion about confiding in others, Shepherd commented in a serious manner, "I confide because when I was going through the divorce with my husband--when we were going to divorce, I was going to kill him. Literally, I stood over him and was thinking of the ways I was going to kill him before I went to jail. I went in the driveway and called my girlfriend and said, 'I'm going to jail. You probably want to come pick me up.' And had I not confided in her, I would have been that woman that ran over him three or four times. Right now, I would have been in my prison stall saying, 'wow, that is great. I love the view". This led to laughter and clapping by the audience.

Shepherd was the subject of controversy due to the September 18, 2007 broadcast of The View. She was asked by co-host Whoopi Golberg "is the world flat?". She first responded "…I don't know" and expanded that she "never thought about it", as it was more important to her that she thought about how she was "going to feed my child". This came after she stated that she didn't "believe in evolution. Period". The following day on the View, she explained that she was nervous and hadn't heard the question. She added loudly, "but I do know that the earth is round", as the audience laughed and clapped for her.

External links

• Official site
• Sherri Shepherd interview