What Is Phylicia Rashad’s Net Worth?
Phylicia Rashad, an American Tony Award-winning actress and singer, has a net worth of $25 million. She is widely recognized for her iconic role as Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom “The Cosby Show.” Rashad also starred alongside Bill Cosby as Ruth Lucas on the CBS sitcom “Cosby.” Her illustrious career includes numerous film and Broadway performances, including notable roles in “Into the Woods,” “Jelly’s Last Jam,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” and “A Raisin in the Sun,” for which she won a Tony Award.
Early Life
Born Phylicia Ayers-Allen in 1948 in Houston, Texas, Rashad was raised in a family of high achievers. Her father, Andrew, was an orthodontist, and 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. The family moved to Mexico during her childhood, making Rashad fluent in Spanish. She attended Howard University, graduating magna cum laude with a BFA in 1970.
Rashad initially released a disco concept album titled “Josephine Superstar” in 1978. Her Broadway career took off in the 1980s with roles such as Deena Jones in “Dreamgirls,” where she served as the understudy for Sheryl Lee Ralph, and a munchkin in “The Wiz” for nearly four years.
Theatrical Successes
Rashad’s stage career flourished with performances in Broadway productions like Tracy Letts’ “August: Osage County,” Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods,” and George C. Wolfe’s “Jelly’s Last Jam.” In 2004, she achieved a significant milestone by starring in a revival of “A Raisin in the Sun,” becoming the first black actress to win the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Lena Younger. She was nominated for the same award the following year for her role in August Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean.”
Rashad’s other Broadway credits include productions of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” alongside James Earl Jones and Anika Noni Rose, and Melvin Van Peebles’ “Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death.” Off-Broadway, she starred in productions such as “Bernarda Alba,” “Cymbeline,” and “The Duplex” at the Lincoln Center, and “Helen” and “Everybody’s Ruby” at the Public Theater. She has also performed at regional theaters, including Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre and Washington, DC’s Arena Stage.
Theatre Directing
In 2007, Rashad directed the Seattle Repertory Theatre’s production of “Gem of the Ocean.” She continued her directing career with a 2014 revival of August Wilson’s “Fences” at Princeton’s McCarter Theatre and directed “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” at Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum in 2016.
Television Career
Rashad’s television career includes a regular role on the ABC soap opera “One Life to Live” before her breakout role in 1984 as Clair Huxtable on “The Cosby Show.” She earned two Emmy Award nominations during the show’s run, which lasted until 1992. Rashad’s television credits also include the TV movies “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” “False Witness,” “Polly,” and “Jailbirds,” as well as appearances in “A Different World.”
In 1996, she reunited with Bill Cosby for the CBS sitcom “Cosby,” which ran until 2000. Rashad has also appeared in episodes of “Everybody Hates Chris,” “Psych,” “The Cleveland Show,” “Jean-Claude Van Johnson,” “When We Rise,” “This Is Us,” and “Station 19,” along with a recurring role on “Empire.” In 2008, she reprised her Tony-winning role in a television adaptation of “A Raisin in the Sun.”
Film Career
Rashad’s film debut was in the 1996 period drama “Once Upon a Time… When We Were Colored.” She followed this with the 1999 comedy “Loving Jezebel.” In 2010, Rashad appeared in “Just Wright,” “Frankie and Alice,” and Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls.” She continued to work with Perry in “Good Deeds” (2012) and appeared in films like “Gods Behaving Badly,” “Creed,” “Creed II,” “A Fall from Grace,” “Black Box,” “Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey,” and Disney/Pixar’s “Soul.”
Personal Life
Rashad has been married three times. Her first marriage was to dentist William Lancelot Bowles Jr. in 1972, with whom she had a son before divorcing in 1975. She married Victor Willis, the original lead singer of the Village People, in 1978, and they divorced in 1982. In 1985, she married former NFL player and sportscaster Ahmad Rashād, who proposed to her during a televised Thanksgiving Day football game. They had a daughter, Condola, in 1986 and divorced in 2001.
