Phylicia Rashad Net Worth

What Is Phylicia Rashad's Net Worth and Salary?

Phylicia Rashad is an American Tony Award-winning actress and singer who has a net worth of $20 million. Phylicia Rashad is best known for her iconic role as Clair Huxtable, the poised and intelligent matriarch on "The Cosby Show," which ran from 1984 to 1992. Her portrayal of Clair earned her Emmy nominations and made her a cultural touchstone as one of the most respected mother figures in TV history.

Before her television fame, Rashad established herself as a gifted stage actress. A graduate of Howard University, she gained early attention in Broadway productions like "Dreamgirls" and "The Wiz." In 2004, she made history as the first Black woman to win the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, for her role as Lena Younger in the Broadway revival of "A Raisin in the Sun." She later starred in and directed numerous stage productions, including "Gem of the Ocean," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom."

Rashad has also remained active in film and television, appearing in projects such as "For Colored Girls," "Creed," "This Is Us," and "The Gilded Age." In 2021, she was named dean of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

Phylicia Rashad was born Phylicia Ayers-Allen on June 19, 1948, in Houston, Texas. Her father, Andrew, was an orthodontist, while her mother, Vivian, is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet, artist, playwright, and scholar. Rashad has three siblings: jazz musician brother Tex, actress and choreographer Debbie Allen, and real estate banker Hugh. Growing up, the family moved to Mexico, making Rashad fluent in Spanish. For college, she attended Howard University, graduating magna cum laude with a BFA in 1970.

After releasing the disco concept album "Josephine Superstar" in 1978, Phylicia came to be recognized for her Broadway stage work in the 1980s. Among her early credits, she played Deena Jones in "Dreamgirls," serving as the understudy of Sheryl Lee Ralph, and was a munchkin in "The Wiz" for almost four years.

Theatrical Successes

Rashad continued to make a name for herself on stage, appearing in Broadway productions of Tracy Letts' "August: Osage County," Stephen Sondheim's "Into the Woods," and George C. Wolfe's "Jelly's Last Jam." In 2004, she hit a new career peak when she starred in a revival of "A Raisin in the Sun." For her portrayal of Lena Younger, Phylicia became the first black actress to win the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. The next year, she was nominated for the same award for her performance in August Wilson's "Gem of the Ocean."

Among Rashad's other Broadway credits are productions of Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," co-starring James Earl Jones and Anika Noni Rose, and Melvin Van Peebles' "Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death." Phylicia has also starred in many off-Broadway productions, including "Bernarda Alba," "Cymbeline," and "The Duplex" at the Lincoln Center, "Helen" and "Everybody's Ruby" at the Public Theater, "The Sirens" at the Manhattan Theatre Club, and several productions with the Negro Ensemble Company, such as "Puppet Play," "Weep Not For Me," and "In an Upstate Motel." Additionally, Rashad has done regional theatre at such venues as Atlanta's Alliance Theatre and Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage.

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Theatre Directing

In 2007, Rashad tried her hand at directing with the Seattle Repertory Theatre's production of "Gem of the Ocean." Later, in 2014, she directed a revival of August Wilson's "Fences" at Princeton, New Jersey's McCarter Theatre. Phylicia continued to focus on August Wilson's work in 2016 when she directed the playwright's "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum.

Television Career

After playing a regular role on the ABC soap opera "One Life to Live," Rashad landed her star-making television role in 1984 on the NBC sitcom "The Cosby Show." The actress played attorney Clair Huxtable, wife of obstetrician Cliff Huxtable (played by Bill Cosby) and mother of five children. The Huxtable children were:

• Sondra, the eldest, played by Sabrina Le Beauf
• Denise, the free-spirited second daughter, played by Lisa Bonet
• Theo, the only son, played by Malcolm-Jamal Warner
• Vanessa, the inquisitive middle daughter, played by Tempestt Bledsoe
• Rudy, the precocious youngest child, played by Keshia Knight Pulliam

The show was a massive critical and commercial success, running for eight seasons until 1992. Rashad's performance earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations and helped redefine the portrayal of Black women on television, portraying Clair as a professional, nurturing, and no-nonsense maternal figure.

The program ran until 1992 and earned Phylicia two Emmy Award nominations. During this time, Rashad appeared in the television movies "Uncle Tom's Cabin," "False Witness," "Polly," and "Jailbirds." She also appeared as Clair Huxtable in four episodes of the sitcom "A Different World."

In 1996, Bill Cosby returned to television with the CBS sitcom "Cosby," and he called Rashad to play his character's wife, Ruth Lucas. The program ran until 2000. Later, Phylicia appeared on an episode of "Everybody Hates Chris" and on three episodes of the detective series "Psych." In 2008, she reprised her Tony-winning role as Lena Younger in a television film adaptation of "A Raisin in the Sun." Later TV credits have included "The Cleveland Show," "Jean-Claude Van Johnson," "When We Rise," "This Is Us," "Station 19," and a recurring role on "Empire."

(Photo by Theo Wargo/WireImage)

Film Career

On the big screen, Rashad made her starring debut in the 1996 period drama "Once Upon a Time… When We Were Colored." This was followed by the comedy "Loving Jezebel" in 1999. In 2010, Phylicia appeared in three movies: the rom-com "Just Wright" with Queen Latifah and Common, the Halle Berry drama "Frankie and Alice," and Tyler Perry's "For Colored Girls," which had an ensemble cast starring Janet Jackson, Kerry Washington, Whoopi Goldberg, and Anika Noni Rose. Rashad worked with Perry again in 2012 on his romantic drama "Good Deeds." Later film credits include "Gods Behaving Badly," as well as the sports drama "Creed" and its sequel, "Creed II." In 2020, Phylicia was in Tyler Perry's "A Fall from Grace," the horror film "Black Box," Netflix's fantasy musical "Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey," and Disney/Pixar's "Soul."

Personal Life

Phylicia has been married three times. The first marriage was in 1972 to a dentist named William Lancelot Bowles Jr. They had one son and divorced in 1975. Next, in 1978, Rashad married Victor Willis, the original lead singer of the Village People. They divorced in 1982. In 1985, Phylicia wed former NFL player and sportscaster Ahmad Rashād, whose surname she adopted. He proposed to her during a pregame show for a televised Thanksgiving Day football game. The following year, they had a daughter, Condola. The pair ended up divorcing in 2001.

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