Vanessa Lynn Williams

Vanessa Lynn Williams was born on March 18, 1963, in Tarrytown, New York, to Helen and Milton Williams, both public-school music teachers. She trained in piano, French horn, and musical theater at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua and entered Syracuse University on a drama scholarship in 1981.

In September 1983 she became the first Black woman crowned Miss America, representing New York. Ten months into her reign, Penthouse magazine announced its intention to publish nude photographs taken before the pageant; she resigned the title in July 1984 and was succeeded by first runner-up Suzette Charles. The Miss America Organization issued a formal apology in 2015 and welcomed her back as a host of that year's competition.

Her recording career took off with the 1988 Mercury album The Right Stuff, which earned three Grammy nominations. The 1991 follow-up The Comfort Zone sold more than two million copies, and its single "Save the Best for Last" topped the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks in 1992. "Colors of the Wind," recorded for Disney's 1995 film Pocahontas, won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

On screen she earned three Emmy nominations as Wilhelmina Slater on ABC's Ugly Betty (2006–2010), reached a Tony nomination for the 2002 revival of Into the Woods, and joined the cast of Desperate Housewives in 2010. Her 2012 memoir You Have No Idea, co-written with her mother, debuted on the New York Times bestseller list. Williams has four children from her marriages to publicist Ramon Hervey II and NBA player Rick Fox; she married trainer Jim Skrip in 2015.

The name Vanessa was coined in 1713 by Jonathan Swift for his correspondent Esther Vanhomrigh, blending "Van" from her surname with "Essa," a pet form of Esther; she carries the feminine literary invention.