Some of her fellow drama students at Howard included novelist Toni Morrison, actress Zaida Coles, stage director and playwright Shauneille Perry, and actor Graham Brown, all of whom were members of the university's theater troupe, the Howard Players.

[4] Roker began her professional career with the Negro Ensemble Company and became a successful stage actress.

[3] She was a reporter on WNEW-TV in New York in the 1970s and hosted a public affairs show for the station known as Inside Bed-Stuy, dealing with events in the Brooklyn neighborhood.

[3] Roker portrayed Helen Willis on The Jeffersons, breaking social barriers by becoming one half of the first Caucasian–African-American married couple (along with actor Franklin Cover) in a regular role on prime-time TV.

She appeared as a guest star on many other American television shows from the 1970s through the 1990s, including Stone in the River starring Hal Miller for NBC, Punky Brewster, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, A Different World, Murder, She Wrote, The Love Boat, $weepstake$, 227, Beat the Clock, Fantasy Island and ABC Afterschool Specials.