[2] Givens played Darlene Merriman in the ABC sitcom Head of the Class in 1986, and remained on the series for its five year duration.
Her troubled marriage to boxer Mike Tyson in 1988 drew considerable media attention, as did their acrimonious divorce.
She has since had recurring roles on The Game, Tyler Perry's House of Payne, Chuck, Riverdale[6] and its spin-off Katy Keene, and has been part of the main cast of Batwoman.
Givens' mother raised Robin and her sister Stephanie in Mount Vernon and New Rochelle, New York.
[10] Givens claimed to have dropped out of Harvard Medical School to focus on her acting career, but the registrar's office stated that she never applied.
[7] Soon after Givens appeared in Diff'rent Strokes and the 1986 television film Beverly Hills Madam, opposite Faye Dunaway.
[7] That same year, she landed her breakthrough role as rich girl Darlene Merriman on the ABC sitcom Head of the Class.
[11] During that period Givens felt she had lost her voice, so one of the reasons why she posed for the magazine was so that she could write her own article.
[16] In January 2000, Givens appeared in a cameo in Toni Braxton's music video "He Wasn't Man Enough", as the wife of a cheating husband.
[19] In 2006, Givens attempted a return to television on MyNetworkTV's telenovela Saints and Sinners,[20] but the show garnered low ratings and was soon canceled.
Givens continued acting in made-for-television films while also making appearances on Trinity Broadcasting Network's Praise the Lord program (July 12, 2007), and Larry King Live.
In it, she reflects on the life of her praying grandmother, Grace, her experiences of domestic violence, her strong will to survive, feeling abandoned by her father, and her faith in God.
[25] In 2015, she starred alongside Clifton Powell, Mishon Ratliff, and Malachi Malik in the segment "Mama's Boy" of TV One's anthology romance horror film Fear Files.
[33] Givens directed the episodes of television series Riverdale, Dynasty, Nancy Drew, So Help Me Todd and Elsbeth.
[37][38] During their marriage, Givens bought a $4.3 million mansion in the affluent suburb of Bernardsville, New Jersey with money withdrawn from Tyson's brokerage account.
[46] In a joint interview with Tyson on 20/20 in September 1988, Givens told Barbara Walters that life with him was "torture, pure hell, worse than anything I could possibly imagine," and she went on to describe his volatile temper.
[47] In October 1988, Givens filed for divorce, citing spousal abuse and was granted a temporary restraining order.
[4][50][51] Headlines heralded her as "the Most Hated Woman in America" and she was described as a "gold digger who married Tyson solely for his millions.
[62] A May 7, 2009, article in Forbes magazine reported that the Internal Revenue Service was suing Givens for unpaid federal income taxes totaling $292,000 ($415,000 in present-day USD when adjusted for inflation), an amount which included interest and penalties.