Wendy Williams Biography

Wendy Joan Williams-Hunter (born Wendy Joan Williams; July 18, 1964) is an American television host, actress, author, fashion designer, and former radio personality. She has hosted the nationally syndicated television talk show, The Wendy Williams Show, since 2008.

Prior to television, Williams was a radio DJ and host and quickly became known in New York as a "shock jockette". She gained notoriety for her on-air spats with celebrities and was the subject of the 2006 VH1 reality TV series, The Wendy Williams Experience, which broadcast events surrounding her radio show. She was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2009.

She has written a New York Times best-selling autobiography and six other books, and has created various product lines including a fashion line, a jewelry collection and a wig line. On her 50th birthday, the council of Asbury Park renamed the street she grew up on, to Wendy Williams Way.

Early life

Williams was born on July 18, 1964, in Ocean Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey, a suburb of Asbury Park. She is the second of three children born to parents Thomas and Shirley Williams, She grew up in the Wayside section of Ocean Township. Williams graduated from Ocean Township High School, and from 1982 to 1986, she attended Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, where she graduated with a B.A. in communications and was a DJ for the college radio station WRBB.

Personal life

In her biography, Wendy's Got the Heat, she uses the pseudonym Robert Morris III to refer to her first husband and describes him as a salesperson. Williams and her first husband have since divorced. On November 30, 1997, Williams married her second husband Kevin Hunter. Williams gave birth to their son, Kevin Hunter Jr., on August 18, 2000. Wendy is a Christian and has stated that she prays with her husband before every show.

Radio career

Williams began her career working for WVIS in the United States Virgin Islands. Less than a year later, she obtained an afternoon position at Washington DC-based station WOL. Williams commuted between DC and Queens, New York, to work an overnight weekend shift at WQHT.

In 1989, Williams began at urban contemporary WRKS (now WEPN-FM) in New York City as a substitute disc jockey. WRKS hired her full-time for its morning show. A year later, Williams moved to an afternoon drive-time shift, eventually winning the Billboard Award for "Best On-Air Radio Personality" in 1993. In December 1994, Emmis Broadcasting purchased WRKS and switched Williams to the company's other New York property, hip-hop formatted WQHT ("Hot 97"), as WRKS was reformatted into an urban adult contemporary outlet. She was fired from Hot 97 in 1998.

Williams was hired by a Philadelphia urban station, WUSL ("Power 99FM"). Her husband, Kevin Hunter, became her agent. She was very open about her personal life on air, discussing her miscarriages, breast enhancement surgery and former drug addiction. She helped the station move from 14th place in the ratings to 2nd.

Williams has stated that Bill Cosby attempted to get her fired in 1991 and 1992. She also believes that Cosby is guilty of sexual assault.

In 2001, Williams returned to the New York airwaves when WBLS hired her full-time for a syndicated 2-6 p.m. time slot. Williams' friend, MC Spice of Boston, offered his voiceover services to the show, often adding short rap verses tailored specifically for Williams' show. The New York Times stated that her "show works best when its elements - confessional paired with snarkiness - are conflated," and cited a 2003 interview with Whitney Houston as an example. During the highly publicized interview that "went haywire" and included "a lot of bleeped language", Williams "asked [Houston], insistently, about her drug and spending habits".

By 2008, she was syndicated in Redondo Beach, California; Shreveport, Louisiana; Wilmington, Delaware; Toledo, Ohio; Columbia, South Carolina; Emporia, Virginia; Lake Charles, Louisiana; Tyler, Texas; and Alexandria, Louisiana, among other markets.

Williams left her radio show in 2009 to focus on her television program and spend more time with her family. She was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.

Lawsuit

In 2008, Nicole Spence, talent booker for The Wendy Williams Experience, filed papers with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suing Williams. Spence claimed Williams' husband, Kevin Hunter, demanded sex from Spence on many occasions and created a hostile work environment by threatening and assaulting his wife on company premises. On June 11, 2008, Spence filed a sexual-harassment lawsuit against Williams, Hunter, and Inner City Broadcasting Corporation in federal court in Manhattan. Both Williams and Hunter deny the charges.

Television

The Wendy Williams Show

In 2008, Debmar-Mercury offered Williams do to a six-week television trial of her own talk show. On July 14, 2008, Williams debuted her daytime talk show, The Wendy Williams Show, in four cities during the summer of 2008. During the tryout, The New York Times snarkily remarked that the show created a "breakthrough in daytime" by introducing the genre of the "backtalk show.".

After a successful run, Fox signed a deal with Debmar-Mercury to broadcast the show nationally on their stations beginning in July 2009. In addition, BET picked up cable rights to broadcast the show at night. In 2010, BET started airing the show internationally in 54 countries through BET International.

Williams has received multiple nominations at the Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host and the show itself was for Outstanding Talk Show/Entertainment. The show attracts 2.4 million daily viewers on average, with Williams trading off daily with Ellen DeGeneres as the number one female host on daytime television.

"The Wendy Williams Show"? has been renewed through the 2019-20 television season on the Fox Television Stations.The renewal will keep "Wendy"? on air through its 11th season. During the November 2015 sweeps period, the talk show finished either No. 1 or 2 in the key demo of women 25-54 in 55% of the U.S. and 20 of the top-25 markets.

Other television appearances

Williams has made appearances in the television series Martin (1992) and in the soap opera One Life to Live (2011).

Williams filled in for Jodi Applegate on WNYW's morning television show, Good Day New York (2007), and hosted a game show for GSN called Love Triangle (2011) for which she and her husband Kevin Hunter served as executive producers.

Williams played a judge on the Lifetime network show Drop Dead Diva (2011) and served as a guest judge on The Face (2013). She was also a contestant, paired with pro Tony Dovolani on season 12 of Dancing with the Stars (2011); she was eliminated second.

In February 2013, it was announced that Williams and her husband and manager, Kevin, were launching a reality television production company, Wendy Williams Productions. that will produce unscripted content, including reality television and game shows. Williams was an executive producer on the show Celebrities Undercover (2014).

Williams also executive produced the Lifetime biopic Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B, which premiered on November 15, 2014. In September 2015, the documentary series Death By Gossip with Wendy Williams premiered on the Investigation Discovery channel, both hosted and produced by Williams.

Film

Williams appeared in the film adaptation of Steve Harvey's book, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, titled Think Like a Man (2012) and its sequel, Think Like a Man Too (2014).

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. These projects will appear under the heading "Wendy Williams presents" and their first project will be VH1 adaptation of a Star Jones novel.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	The Cookout	Reporter No. 2
2011	The Cookout 2	Wendy Williams
2012	Think Like a Man	Gail
2014	Think Like a Man Too	Gail
2016	Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates	Wendy Williams

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Martin	Wendy Williams	Episode: Radio Days
1995	New York Undercover	WGHT DJ	Episode: "You Get No Respect"
2011	One Life to Live	Phyllis Rose	Episode: "1.10885"
2011	Drop Dead Diva	Judge Mary Rudd	Episode: "Hit and Run"
2012	30 Rock	Wendy Williams	Episode: "My Whole Life is Thunder"
2013	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Wendy Williams	Episode: "Funny Valentine"
2013	Belle's		Episode: "Runaway Bride"
2013	The Neighbors	Shirley	Episode: "The One with Interspecies F-R-I-E-N-D-S
2014	Santa Con	Pastor Ruth	Television film
2016	Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade	Condor Mom	Voice only; television special
2017	Nightcap	Herself	Episode: "Go-Fund Yourself"

Theater

In 2013, Williams announced she was going to play the role of Matron "Mama" Morton on the Broadway musical Chicago. Williams officially began her tenure on July 2 and finished her 7-week run on August 11, 2013. Her preparations for the musical were documented in the TV Guide docuseries, "Wendy Williams: How You Doin', Broadway?!", which was produced by her own production company, Wendy Williams Productions.

Business

Products

HSN Clothing Line

By partnering with the Home Shopping Network (HSN), Williams debuted a line of dresses, pants, sweaters and skirts fit for the everyday woman.The household name media mogul debuted her HSN Clothing line on March 28, 2015. The debut was a "sell-out success" and Williams even told viewers on her talk show that according to HSN, the debut was their most watched premiere since the onset of the program. The Wendy Williams line is sold exclusively at HSN.

Adorn

Williams sells a line of jewelry products on the home shopping network, QVC, called "Adorn by Wendy Williams".

Williams and her husband, Kevin Hunter, commissioned the Chinese-based manufacturing firm, Max Harvest International Holdings, to make 12,140 pairs of shoes bearing the logo of her brand, Adorn. The owners of Max Harvest International Holdings were said to have gone into hiding after the owner of the shoe factory who made the shoes kidnapped one of their managers and held the man prisoner for two weeks before releasing him, and Williams' failure to pay was cited the reason, reported by the New York Daily News. The manager and his wife retained lawyer Staci Riordan of Los Angeles. Their representative says they've been in negotiations for several months in order to reach a settlement. Williams declined to comment on the matter.

Endorsements

Williams was previously a spokesperson for Georges Veselle champagne. She posed for PETA's "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur", ad campaign in 2012.

Books

Williams is a seven-time New York Times best-seller and has published several books, including:

Non-fiction

• Wendy's Got the Heat (2003), coauthored with Karen Hunter Atria; 1 edition (August 5, 2003)
• The Wendy Williams Experience (2005)
• Ask Wendy: Straight-Up Advice for All the Drama in Your Life (2013)

Fiction

• Drama Is Her Middle Name: The Ritz Harper Chronicles, Vol. 1 (2006), coauthored with Karen Hunter
• Is the Bitch Dead, Or What?: The Ritz Harper Chronicles, Book 2 (2007), coauthored with Karen Hunter
• Ritz Harper Goes to Hollywood! (Ritz Harper Chronicles) (2009), coauthored with Zondra Hughes

• Hold Me in Contempt: A Romance (2014)

Awards

• Radio Personality of the Year awards from Billboard, Black Radio Exclusive, and Radio & Records industry magazines
• 2009: named to the National Radio Hall of Fame
• Hosted the 2013 Soul Train Awards Red Carpet
• Hosted the 2014 Soul Train Awards in Las Vegas, which aired on November 30, 2014.
• Nominated for The 42nd & 43rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Talk Show/Entertainment and Outstanding Talk Show Host.

Stand-up comedy

Before Wendy turned 50, stand-up comedy was on her bucket list

• In 2014, Lipshtick called Williams to participate in their first all-female-based comedy series at the Venetian in Las Vegas.
• Williams made her sold-out comedy debut on July 11, 2014
• Williams comedy tour was called "The Sit-down Comedy Tour."
• Williams returned to Lipshtick on October 31, 2014 and November 1, 2014 after she made a sold-out debut in July.
• 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.
• In 2015, Williams announced a 12-city comedy tour called, The Wendy Williams Sit Down Tour: Too Real For Stand-Up.