She gained notoriety for her on-air spats with celebrities and was the subject of the 2006 VH1 reality television series The Wendy Williams Experience, which broadcast events surrounding her radio show.

[8][10] Following race riots in Asbury Park in 1970, the family moved to the predominantly white, middle income suburb of Wayside in Ocean Township, New Jersey.

As an intern for Matt Siegel at contemporary hit radio station WXKS-FM, Williams recapped the soap operas Dallas and Dynasty on air.

[20] Two weeks after graduating from Northeastern, Williams began her career as a disc jockey working for the small, calypso and reggae-oriented WVIS in Frederiksted, U.S. Virgin Islands,[17][21][22] but disliked the role because she did not learn as much about radio from her colleagues as she expected.

[17][18] She left WVIS after eight months and obtained a position at Washington, D.C.'s WOL, but found its oldies radio format incompatible with her personality.

[24] Initially working as a fill-in, WRKS gave Williams a non-compete clause and permanent morning position in May 1990 after WBLS began poaching its employees.

In an effort to reverse the trend, WRKS moved Williams back to mornings on September 26, 1994, where she hosted a program titled "Wendy and Company".

[30][31] However, Emmis purchased WRKS less than three months later and transferred Williams to WQHT, where she began hosting the evening drive time slot on December 12, 1994.

As WRKS was reformatted into an urban adult contemporary outlet geared toward older audiences, they believed Williams would better reflect WQHT's younger demographic.

[33] In April 1997, WQHT suspended Williams for one week after mentioning her website on air, which displayed a doctored image of Bad Boy Records executive Sean Combs naked from the waist down having sex with another man.

[33][35][36] The station suspended Williams again in September 1997 for online comments insinuating that her colleague Angie Martinez's boyfriend Q-Tip was gay.

[11][33] Upon her return after deleting the post a month later, Williams called the Bad Boy Records girl group Total "broke hoes" after their comments favoring her suspension.

She speculated her removal was due to pressure from music industry executives and stood by her comments, stating: "I stopped caring about artists when I realized it's more lucrative to talk about them than with them.

[40] Wu-Tang Clan performer Method Man had a personal and publicized conflict with Williams in 2006 after she revealed details about his wife's cancer diagnosis.

[46] Williams hosted a game show for GSN called Love Triangle (2011) for which she and her husband Kevin Hunter served as executive producers.

In 2012, it was announced Williams would enter into a "production alliance" with producers Suzanne de Passe and Madison Jones to create movies and television shows aimed at multicultural audiences.

[62] Williams was accused of victim blaming singer Kesha in 2016 after questioning why she did not film the alleged sexual abuse by record producer Dr. Luke against her.

In January 2018, Williams was criticized by activist Tarana Burke after saying an alleged 14-year-old sexual assault victim of R. Kelly gave him consent and that she was tired of the #MeToo movement.

After a Change.org petition in favor of firing her garnered over 70,000 signatures, Williams apologized on Twitter and her show donated to cleft palate charities.

While talking about the fictional holiday "Galentine's Day", she criticized gay men for wearing skirts and high heels and falsely assumed they aspire to be women.

[86][87] Williams has also written several fiction books, including a trilogy about the life and career of radio shock jock Ritz Harper.

[99] Williams hosted her "How You Laughin'" Comedy Series at NJPAC on November 15, 2014, featuring Luenell, Jonathan Martin, Pat Brown, Hadiyah Robinson, and Meme Simpson.

[106] Following the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Williams visited her hometown of Asbury Park and paid for the hot meals of 300 people, face painting, and balloon animals for children.

[115][116] Williams attended Los Angeles Pride in June 2019 with Blac Chyna, and rode on a float in July at the WorldPride parade in New York.

[120] Williams and her ex-husband created The Hunter Foundation in 2014, a non-profit organization that funded anti-poverty programs and provided resources to people as they transitioned from drug addiction to recovery.

[144] Williams's bank, Wells Fargo, froze her accounts in January 2022 and requested a New York Supreme Court hearing to determine whether she was in need of a guardianship due to her health conditions.

[151] Her niece Alex Finnie, who also appeared on the show, expressed support for her, saying that Williams "sounds great" and that her state "does not match [that of] an incapacitated person".

[153] City University of New York professor Tanisha C. Ford credits Williams for creating the format by which other personalities conduct gossip segments of their own.

[11] The scholars ThedaMarie Gibbs Grey and Bonnie J. Williams-Farrier contend Williams is among the African American women who, through their television programs, popularized the term "sipping tea".

[157] In Washington, D.C., various artifacts related to Williams's career such as a microphone, outfit, and wig used by her are located at a television exhibit in the National Museum of American History.