Wanda Sykes Biography

Wanda was born on March 7, 1964 in Portsmouth, Virginia and raised in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, in the Washington D.C. area.  Her father was a Colonel in the US army, and her mother was a journalist. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from Hampton University in 1986.

Her stand-up career began at a Coors Light Super Talent Competition in Washington where she gave her first performance in front of live audience. Although she lost, she discovered a passion for comedy. She continued to groom her talent at local venues while working as a procurement officer at the National Security Agency (NSA).

Wanda Skyes, within a short period of time, emerged as one of the top female comediennes in the entertainment industry. She spent 5 years as a part of HBO’s critically acclaimed "The Chris Rock Show". As a performer and writer on the show, she was nominated for three primetime Emmy Awards. She also appeared in feature films like Pootie Tang (2001), Nutty Professor II: the Klumps (2000), and Down to Earth (2001). In 2003, Wanda starred in her own short-lived Fox Network sitcom, Wanda at Large. The same year, Skyes appeared in an hour-long Comedy Central special, “Tongue Untied”.  In 2005, she again appeared in a movie, Monster-in-law”. In addition to her film and television work, she is also an author. On November 15, 2008, she made it known publicly that she is a lesbian and announced for the first time that she has a wife, to whom she was married in California on October 25, 2008.