Vanessa Williams

Her mother Helen Tinch met her father Milton Augustine Williams Jr. (1935–2006) while both were music education students at Fredonia State Teachers College in the late 1950s.

They became elementary school music teachers in separate districts after marriage.

Milton also served as the assistant principal of his school for an extended period of time.

Williams was raised Catholic, the religion of her father.

Her mother, who had been raised Baptist, converted to Catholicism when she married.

Williams was baptized at Our Lady of Grace Church in the Bronx.

Her mother played the organ at St. Theresa's Church in Briarcliff Manor for weddings and at Mass, and Williams used to assist her mother by turning the pages of sheet music.

Williams and her younger brother Chris (who would later become an actor) grew up in Westchester County, a predominantly white middle to upper-class suburb of New York City.

Vanessa Lynn Williams (born March 18, 1963) is an American singer, actress, model, producer, and dancer.

It has been reported that Vanessa L. became aware of Vanessa E. in the 1980s when the New York University registrar told her that another, similarly aged student with the same name and from the same state had applied.

When Williams appeared as Miss America in a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Vanessa E. accidentally received her check for the appearance, which she returned.

In the area of acting, the two ran into name conflict when Screen Actors Guild rules prohibited duplicate stage naming.

Vanessa E. had registered the name "Vanessa Williams" first, so as a compromise, Williams was occasionally credited as "Vanessa L. Williams" in acting credits.

To compound the confusion, both actresses starred in versions of the drama Soul Food (Williams in the film version, and Vanessa E. in its TV series adaptation).

The Screen Actors Guild eventually took the issue to arbitration and decided both actresses could use the professional name "Vanessa Williams".

Thus, in 1981, Williams joined Syracuse's College of Visual and Performing Arts, Department of Drama as a musical theater major.

She gained recognition as the first African-American woman to receive the Miss America title when she was crowned Miss America 1984, but resigned her title amid a media controversy surrounding nude photographs of her being published in Penthouse magazine.

She stayed at Syracuse through her second year until she was crowned Miss America 1984 in September 1983.

In 1988, she released her debut studio album The Right Stuff, whose title single saw moderate success as well as "Dreamin' that peaked at number 8 in the United States in 1989. With her second and third studio albums, The Comfort Zone (1991) and The Sweetest Days (1994), she saw continued commercial success and received multiple Grammy Award nominations; this included her number-one single and signature song, "Save the Best for Last", which she performed live at the 1993 Grammy Awards ceremonies. Her later studio albums include Everlasting Love (2005) and The Real Thing (2009).

As an actress, Williams enjoyed success on stage and screen.

She made her Broadway debut in 1994 with Kiss of the Spider Woman.

In 2002, she starred as The Witch in the revival of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods that earned her a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical nomination.

She is also known for her appearances in television, with her best known roles being Wilhelmina Slater on Ugly Betty (2006–2010), for which she was nominated three times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series; and Renee Perry on Desperate Housewives (2010–2012).

Vanessa Lynn Williams was born in Tarrytown with a birth announcement that read: "Here she is: Miss America".

She was raised in Millwood, New York.

A paternal great-great-grandfather was William Fields, an African-American legislator in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

Williams is also of English and Welsh descent.

In May 2008, Syracuse granted Williams a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.

According to Syracuse News, "Williams earned the remaining credits for her degree through industry experience and her substantial performances on stage and screen."

Williams also delivered the 2008 convocation address, telling Syracuse seniors to "treasure this moment. These days are irreplaceable and are the beginning of the rest of your life."

Williams is most often publicly recognized simply as "Vanessa Williams".

There is, however, occasional confusion with the similarly named actress Vanessa E. Williams.

Williams believes she may have been the first African-American student to go from the first grade to the 12th grade in the Chappaqua Central School District.

She attended Robert E. Bell Middle School, as did her children years later.

Williams revealed that the shop and home economics teachers (Mr. and Mrs. Fink) were still there when her children attended.

A child of music teachers, Williams grew up in a musical household, studying classical and jazz dance, French horn, piano, and violin.

She was offered the Presidential Scholarship for Drama to attend Carnegie Mellon University during the college application period, (one of 12 students to receive it) but decided instead to attend Syracuse University on a different scholarship.

She starred in the revival of Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful in 2013, and the ensemble political farce POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive in 2022.

Thirty-two years later, Williams was offered a public apology during the Miss America 2016 pageant for the events.

Williams rebounded from the scandal with a successful career as a singer and actress.