Biography of Jacqueline Yvonne Harry

FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN TO WIN A PRIMETIME EMMY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

Jacqueline Yvonne Harry (born August 14, 1956) is an American actress, comedian, and television personality. She is known for her starring roles as Sandra Clark, the nemesis of Mary Jenkins (played by Marla Gibbs), on the NBC TV series 227 (1985–1990), and as Lisa Landry on the ABC/The WB sitcom Sister, Sister (1994–1999). She is noted for being the first African-American to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

She also starred in the 1992 film Ladybugs opposite Rodney Dangerfield. Since March 2021, she has played Paulina Price on the NBC/Peacock soap opera Days of Our Lives.

Harry was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to an Afro-Trinidadian mother and African American father and raised in Harlem, New York. She began studying acting at the High School of the Performing Arts in midtown Manhattan in New York City. Harry graduated from Long Island University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in education and worked as a teacher of American history at Brooklyn Technical High School for two years before beginning a career on the New York stage.

In 1978, Harry made her Broadway debut in A Broadway Musical. Throughout the 1980s she starred in numerous productions both on and off Broadway and in national touring productions. In 1994, Harry made her return to the theater by starring as Billie Holiday in the play Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill. Following that stage production, she fulfilled the role of “madam who runs a bordello” in the Broadway musical The Boys from Syracuse. In the mid 2000s, she appeared in stage productions of The Sunshine Boys, Damn Yankees, and A Christmas Carol. She also toured nationally in JD Lawrence’s The Clean Up Woman.

Harry made her television acting debut in 1983 on Another World as Lily Mason, a role she continued until 1986. In 1985, Harry began a co-starring role as Sandra Clark on the NBC sitcom 227. Her mother, Flossie, celebrated her getting the role but died before the show started airing.

After leaving 227 in 1989, Harry starred opposite Oprah Winfrey in The Women of Brewster Place, an adaptation of Gloria Naylor’s novel of the same name. In 1988, she guest starred as Roxanne Farley on the tv show Amen. In 1989, she returned to Amen as Florence Hawkins.

In 1984, she made her motion pictures debuts with bit parts in Moscow on the Hudson and The Cotton Club. In 2004, she played Elizabeth “Mama’ Smith in the movie You Got Served. She has also appeared in several Christmas tv movies.

She had a recurring role as Vanessa on the UPN/The CW series Everybody Hates Chris and had a recurring role on the BET Series Let’s Stay Together. From 2012 to 2015, she starred in Byron Allen’s sitcom The First Family. In 2013, she appeared in the pilot episode of the Disney sitcom Girl Meets World, as well as the episodes “Girl Meets Crazy Hat” and “Girl Meets Demolition”. That same year, she also joined Gibbs in the movie Forbidden Woman. In 2014, she made a guest appearance on Instant Mom as her character Lisa Landry. She appeared in the 2 Broke Girls episode “And the Sax Problem” in 2016, as Earl’s (Garrett Morris) ex-girlfriend.

On December 8, 2020, during an appearance on Today, Harry announced that she was set to join the cast of the soap opera Days of Our Lives. Harry was cast as Paulina Price. When the series was renewed for two additional seasons in 2021, Harry was placed on contract with the series. On July 25, 2021, she appeared on Celebrity Family Feud.

AWARDS & NOMINATIONS

▪1987 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series 227 (Won)
▪1988 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series 227 (Nominated)
▪1989 Golden Globe Awards Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (Nominated)
▪2016 Nollywood and African Film Critics Awards Best Actress Independent Film The Man in 3B (Nominated)
▪1999 NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Sister, Sister (Won)
▪2000 NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Sister, Sister (Won)
▪2021 Online Film & Television Association Awards Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series Pose (Nominated)

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