Wanda Yvette Sykes (born March 7, 1964) is a stand-up comedian, actor, and writer from the United States. She originally gained attention as a writer on The Chris Rock Show, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award in 1999. Sykes was rated one of the 25 funniest persons in America by Entertainment Weekly in 2004. She is also well known for her parts on CBS’ The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006–10), HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm (2001–present), and ABC’s Black-ish (2006–present). (2015–2022). She currently stars in the Netflix original series The Upshaws, which premieres on May 12, 2021, alongside Kim Fields and Mike Epps, and has previously appeared in the HBO Max comedy series The Other Two, as well as on Paramount+’s acclaimed The Good Fight, where she played Allegra Durado, a new, powerful, and “messy”-brained partner in a legal firm.
Sykes has also had a film career, appearing in Monster-in-Law (2005), My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006), Evan Almighty (2007), and License to Wed (2007), as well as voicing characters in animated films such as Over the Hedge, Barnyard, and Brother Bear 2 (all in 2006), Rio (2011), the subsequent films of the Ice Age franchise (2012-2016), and UglyDolls (2019).
