She appeared in Diva, the 1981 film by French director Jean-Jacques Beineix, credited as "Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez".
[2] Fernandez began her academic training at the Philadelphia Academy of Vocal Arts and then studied as a scholarship student at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City.
She made her Paris début in 1979 as Musetta in La bohème alongside Plácido Domingo and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.
For her work in Carmen Jones on the London stage she received the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1992 as Best Actress in a Musical.
Ne andrò lontana" for Diva was included on the soundtrack of Ridley Scott's 1987 film Someone to Watch Over Me.