Drake is one of four children born to Beatrice Lillian Hayes, a teacher, social worker and community activist, and Carl Everett Drake, a postal worker who later became the first African American practicing psychiatrist in Sacramento.

[2] Drake made her Broadway debut in the 1975 Leslie Lee's play The First Breeze of Summer and the following year appeared in Great Performances production.

[9] In 1979 she co-starred in the miniseries Backstairs at the White House and the made-for-television movie The Cracker Factory.

Book II (1980), First Monday in October (1981), Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986), Alien Nation (1988), House Party (1990), Across the Tracks (1991), Boomerang (1992), Jason's Lyric (1994), Space Jam (1996), How to Be a Player (1997), Anywhere But Here (1999), Leprechaun in the Hood (2000), Friday After Next (2002), Wild Hogs (2007) and Influence (2020).

Another Story, the 1987 thriller Billionaire Boys Club, and the 1989 miniseries The Women of Brewster Place[11] She was regular cast member in the 1990 short-lived sitcom New Attitude.