Phylicia Rashad | 72

Phylicia Rashad, an American actress who first became famous in the TV series “The Cosby Show” and later became the first African American woman to win the Tony Award for Best Actress; she was honored for her performance in the drama A Raisin in the sun. Vivian Ayers, who is Rashad’s mother, is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated artist, poet, playwright, scholar, and publisher. And her father was an orthodontist. Rashad’s siblings are jazz-musician; sister Debbie Allen, an actress, choreographer, and director.

As Rashad grew up, her family moved to Mexico, so she speaks Spanish fluently. She studied at Howard University and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1970. There, she began to participate in the Alpha branch of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Fellowship. In her acting career, her brilliant performance in the series brought her two Emmy nominations. She also played the role of a teacher in the TV series David Makes Man and then showed up in Perry’s crime drama A Fall from Grace.