Kym Elizabeth Whitley is an American comedian and actress. She is best known for her roles on television sitcoms, such as '' My Brother and Me'', ''

Sparks Sparks may refer to: Places *Sparks, Georgia * Sparks, Kansas *Sparks, Kentucky *Sparks, Maryland * Sparks, Nebraska *Sparks, Nevada *Sparks, Oklahoma *Sparks, Texas * Sparks, Bell County, Texas * Sparks, West Virginia Books * ''Sparks'' (Raffi ...

'', '' Animal Practice'', '' The Boondocks'', '' Young & Hungry'', '' The Parkers'', '' The Cleveland Show'', and '' Black Dynamite''. Whitley was nominated for a 2004 BET Comedy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Box Office Movie for her role as Ormandy in the 2003 comedy film '' Deliver Us From Eva''.

Early life and education

Whitley was born in Shaker Heights,

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

to Kaysonia and William Whitley. Her father was a founding partner of the black architectural firm of Whitley and Whitley. Whitley and Whitley was involved with work on Tower City Center, the

Cleveland State University Cleveland State University (CSU) is a Public university, public research university in Cleveland, Ohio. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in op ...

Convocation Center, Lincoln Junior High School, the Lee-Harvard Branch of Cleveland Public Library, the Central Area Multi-Service Center, and the

Cleveland Clinic Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit American academic medical center based in Cleveland, Ohio. Owned and operated by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, an Ohio nonprofit corporation established in 1921, it runs a 170-acre (69 ha) campus in Cleveland, ...

Guesthouse development. They were also involved in a joint venture to design and build Jacobs Field (now

Progressive Field {{Infobox stadium , name = Progressive Field , nickname = ''"The Jake"'' , logo_image = Progressive_Field_Logo.svg , logo_caption = , image = , caption = Progressive Fiel ...

), home to the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive ...

. She attended

Shaker Heights High School Shaker Heights High School is a public high school located in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. The high school is the only public high school in the Shaker Heights City School District, which serves Shaker Heights and a small part of ...

(graduating in 1979) and

Fisk University Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1930, Fisk was the first Afric ...

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...

, Tennessee. She was initiated into the Alpha Beta chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

Career

In 1989, Whitley got her big break starring in Shelly Garrett's popular play '' Beauty Shop'', which started in Los Angeles then later traveled across the U.S. Whitley's major acting roles include the short-lived sitcoms '' My Brother and Me'' and ''

''. She made guest appearances on several television sitcoms, including '' The Parent 'Hood'', '' Married... with Children'', '' Moesha'', ''

That's So Raven ''That's So Raven'' is an American television teen sitcom that was created by Michael Poryes and Susan Sherman, and aired on Disney Channel for four seasons between January 2003 and November 2007. The series centers on Raven Baxter (Raven-Sym ...

'', '' The Parkers'', ''

My Wife and Kids ''My Wife and Kids'' is an American sitcom that ran on ABC from March 28, 2001, to May 17, 2005. The series was produced by Touchstone Television. It starred Damon Wayans as Michael Kyle, the patriarch of an African-American family. Wayans and ...

'' and ''

Curb Your Enthusiasm ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' is an American television sitcom produced and broadcast by HBO since October 15, 2000, and created by Larry David, who stars as a semi-fictionalized version of himself. It follows David's life as a semi-retired televis ...

''. She also hosted the short-lived BET show ''Oh Drama'' (2000). Whitley also had a small role in '' Next Friday'' as Craig's aunt Suga. She was one of the group called "The Adults", who were adult cast members in the earlier seasons of ''

All That ''All That'' is an American sketch comedy television series created by Brian Robbins and Mike Tollin. The series originally aired on Nickelodeon from April 16, 1994, to October 22, 2005, lasting ten seasons, and was produced by Tollin/Robbins P ...

''. In the early spring of 2010, Whitley was a co-host with R&B musician

Brian McKnight Brian Kelly McKnight (born June 5, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, radio host and multi-instrumentalist. He is most recognized for his strong head voice, high belting range and melisma. McKnight is known for ...

on the short-lived talk show ''The Brian McKnight Show''. From 2012 to 2013, Whitley had a recurring role on the BET comedy '' Let's Stay Together'' as Charmaine Wax. Kym's reality docu-series entitled '' Raising Whitley'' on the Oprah Winfrey Network premiered on April 20, 2013 with a total of 1.2 million viewers, making it the fifth most-widely viewed premiere in the history of the network. OWN ordered a second season, which premiered on January 4, 2014. Whitley joined the cast of the television sitcom '' Young & Hungry'' which premiered on

ABC Family The American cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and six different name changes) during its h ...

(now Freeform) in 2014, where she plays Josh's housekeeper Yolanda. The show ran for five seasons, ending in 2018. In 2017, she guest starred in the web series ''The Bay'' where she played Big Candi. She received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting or Guest Actress in a Digital Daytime Drama Series. In 2018, she guest starred in the "

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...

" episode of ''

Master of None ''Master of None'' is an American comedy-drama streaming television series, which was released for streaming on November 6, 2015, on Netflix. The series was created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang, with the first two seasons starring Ansari in the ...

'' as Denise's aunt Joyce, and sister to Angela Bassett's character. The episode won an Emmy for Best Writing for ''Master of None's'' actors

Aziz Ansari Aziz Ismail Ansari (; born February 23, 1983) is an American actor and stand-up comedian. He is known for his role as Tom Haverford on the NBC series ''Parks and Recreation'' (2009–2015) and as creator and star of the Netflix series '' Mas ...

and

Lena Waithe Lena Waithe (born May 17, 1984) is an American actress, producer, and screenwriter. She is the creator of the Showtime drama series '' The Chi'' (2018–present) and the BET comedy series ''Boomerang'' (2019–20) and '' Twenties'' (2020–pres ...

, she's been a recurring guest host on E! Daily Pop & Nightly pop since December 2020

Causes

In 2013, Whitley and her friend Rodney Van Johnson launched a line of t-shirts titled "Don't Feed Me." The shirts alert caregivers about children who have specific

food allergies A food allergy is an abnormal immune response to food. The symptoms of the allergic reaction may range from mild to severe. They may include itchiness, swelling of the tongue, vomiting, diarrhea, hives, trouble breathing, or low blood pressu ...

Personal life

Whitley has two older brothers, Kyle and Scott. In January 2011, Whitley adopted her son, Joshua.

Filmography

Film

Television

Documentary

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitley, Kym Living people Actors from Shaker Heights, Ohio Actresses from Tennessee Fisk University alumni 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses African-American female comedians American women comedians American voice actresses American television actresses African-American actresses American film actresses Actresses from Ohio Comedians from Ohio 20th-century American comedians 21st-century American comedians 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American people Year of birth missing (living people)