Vanessa Lynn Williams[1] (born March 18, 1963) is an American singer, actress, model, producer, and dancer.

She would later resign her title amid a media controversy surrounding nude photographs published in Penthouse magazine.

In 1988, she released her debut studio album The Right Stuff, whose title single saw moderate success as well as "Dreamin'", which peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in 1989.

She starred in the revival of Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful in 2013, and the ensemble political farce POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive in 2022.

She is also known for her appearances in television, with her best known roles being Wilhelmina Slater on Ugly Betty (2006–2010), for which she was nominated three times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series; and Renee Perry on Desperate Housewives (2010–2012).

Vanessa Lynn Williams was born in Tarrytown, New York with a birth announcement that read: "Here she is: Miss America".

[4][5] Her mother Helen Tinch (1939–2024) met her father Milton Augustine Williams Jr. (1934–2006) while both were music education students at Fredonia State Teachers College in the late 1950s.

[9] In 1981, Williams joined Syracuse's College of Visual and Performing Arts, Department of Drama as a musical theater major.

[11] According to Syracuse News, "Williams earned the remaining credits for her degree through industry experience and her substantial performances on stage and screen.

The Screen Actors Guild eventually took the issue to arbitration, and decided both actresses could use the professional name "Vanessa Williams".

Several weeks before the end of her reign, a scandal arose when Penthouse magazine bought and published unauthorized nude photographs of her.

Other singles included "The Comfort Zone" (#2 R&B), "Just for Tonight" (#26 Pop), a cover of The Isley Brothers' "Work to Do" (#3 R&B), and the club-only hit "Freedom Dance (Get Free!)".

[1] The album saw Williams branch out and sample other styles of music that included jazz, hip hop, rock, and Latin-themed recordings such as "Betcha Never" and "You Can't Run", both written and produced by Babyface.

[1] Chart performances from subsequent albums, motion picture and television soundtracks have included the songs "Love Is", which was a duet with Brian McKnight, the Golden Globe- and Academy Award-winning "Colors of the Wind", "Where Do We Go from Here?

[1] In 2006, Williams received considerable media attention for her comic/villainess role as former model/magazine creative director turned editor-in-chief Wilhelmina Slater in the ABC comedy series Ugly Betty.

[1] Williams next joined the cast of Desperate Housewives for its seventh season, where she portrayed Renee Perry, an old college "frenemy" of Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman).

She received an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture for her portrayal of Teri Joseph for the 1997 feature film Soul Food.

[35] In 1994, she broadened her ascendant music career into a theatrical role when she replaced Chita Rivera as Aurora in the Broadway production of Kiss of the Spider Woman.

[40] In 2013, she starred as Jessie Mae Watts in the Horton Foote play The Trip to Bountiful, which was later turned into a 2014 television film.

[41] In 2014, she starred in the Broadway musical, After Midnight[42] and in 2015, she appeared in a PBS production of Show Boat as Julie La Verne.

[43] Williams starred as Margaret in POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive on Broadway, with performances that began on April 14, 2022, at the Shubert Theatre.

[51] In 2018, Williams returned as a spokesmodel for L'Oréal as part of their "Age Perfect" campaign alongside fellow ambassadors Helen Mirren, Julianne Moore, and Jane Fonda.

[52] In 2000, she appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire as a contestant, and again in August 2009, as a celebrity guest during the show's tenth anniversary prime-time special editions, winning $50,000 for her charity.

[55] In 2020, Williams was the winner of season 1, episode 2 of RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race, and donated her prize of $20,000 to the LGBTQ charity The Trevor Project.

She married Ramon Hervey II[60][61] at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church[62] in 1987[62][63] just a few years after giving up her Miss America crown and gave birth to her first child at that time.

According to the DNA-test results, she is 23% of Ghanaian, 17% of British, 15% of Cameroonian, 12% of Finnish, 11% of Southern-European, 7% of Togolese, 6% of Beninese, 5% of Senegalese and 4% of Portuguese descent.

[77] She currently sits on the board of The Sheen Center for Thought and Culture a creative arts space run by the Catholic Arch Diocese.

[80] In December 2017, Vanessa L. Williams participated at COAF Gala fundraising event, delivering a special performance of her Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning song "Colors of the Wind" and paid tribute to Patricia Field, with whom she worked on the set of the TV series Ugly Betty.