She was the first African-American performer to star in a regularly scheduled network television show, appearing in DuMont's The Laytons.

At the age of 14, Randolph began earning extra money playing the piano and organ in Cleveland, Ohio.

[7][8][9] Randolph also wrote music she recorded for the Vocalstyle company; she is shown as both the performer and composer of "I'm Gonna Jazz My Way Right Straight Thru Paradise", and as the co-author of "Cryin' Blues" with H. C.

[13] She was invited to join the Sissle and Blake musical, Shuffle Along, in New York in 1924 and went on to do Lucky Sambo as one of the Three Dixie Songbirds (sharing the bill with its star, Tim Moore, whom she later appeared with on The Amos 'n' Andy Show from 1951 to 1953).

[6][18][19][20] Randolph worked on the vaudeville and burlesque circuits as a comedian[21] and as a singer, noting that Abbott and Costello also got their start the same way.

[6][22][23] Randolph took a four-year hiatus from show business in 1932; she married and helped her husband run their restaurant in New York called The Clam House, which was a favorite of those in the entertainment industry.

[35][36] Around the same time, Randolph broke into radio, helped by people she met at The Clam House, who got her a CBS audition.

She began working on various radio shows: Young Dr. Malone, Romance of Helen Trent and Big Sister.

[37] She went on to become a regular cast member on Abie's Irish Rose, Kitty Foyle, and Miss Hattie with Ethel Barrymore, where she had the role of Venus.

The following is a list of cartoons in which Randolph voiced Petunia: During the 1948-49 television season, Randolph starred for about a year in her own daytime musical TV program for DuMont, Amanda, which aired Mon-Fridays from 12noon to 12:15pm ET, making her the first African-American woman with her own show on daytime television.

[53] Despite all her film and television work, Randolph found herself slightly short of the requirements for a much-needed Screen Actors Guild pension at the age of 70 (both sisters had struggled for roles in the late 1930s).