American actress Phylicia Rashad is one of the most recognizable African-American actresses in Hollywood. With a career of over five decades, Rashad has raked up credits on the small and big screens. Interestingly, Phylicia Rashad began her career in theater. The six-time Emmy-nominated, two-time Tony Award winner has had an impressive acting career.
The 75-year-old actress, born Phylicia Ayers-Allen, starred in David Ayer‘s 2024 action thriller The Beekeeper as Eloise Parker. Although she had little screen time as the retired schoolteacher Eloise Parker, her character’s death set in motion the events of the movie. With an impressively extensive career, here’s where you know the super-talented actress Phylicia Rashad from.
The Cosby Show (1984–1992)
The NBC sitcom The Cosby Show was far from being Phylicia Rashad’s on-screen debut role. However, it was her breakout role that thrust her into the spotlight. The same year The Cosby Show premiered in 1984, Rashad also appeared in 2 episodes of the ABC soap opera One Life to Live (1984). In The Cosby Show, Rashad played the matriarch of the Huxtable family, Clair Huxtable. Thanks to her flawless portrayal, the character became an international icon on television. Starring alongside Bill Cosby, The Cosby Show was an instant success. Over the years, playing Clair Huxtable continues to be Phylicia Rashad’s career-defining role. Phylicia Rashad reprised the role in the spin-off show A Different World (1988–1990), first as a guest and then as a recurring cast member.
Once Upon a Time…When We Were Colored (1996)
Although she starred in an unknown role in the 1972 comedy The Broad Coalition, Phylicia Rashad’s first notable feature film appearance was Tim Reid‘s period drama Once Upon a Time…When We Were Colored (1995). At the time of its release on January 26, 1996, Phylicia Rashad was already a notable face on television. In Once Upon a Time…When We Were Colored, Rashad is cast in the lead role as Ma Ponk.
Cosby (1996–2000)
Premiering on September 16, 1996, Phylicia Rashad co-starred with Bill Cosby once more in the CBS sitcom Cosby. It was the second time Rashad was playing Cosby’s on-screen wife Ruth Lucas, after working together on The Cosby Show. However, Rashad wasn’t the first actress cast for the part. Initially cast as the matriarch of the Lucas family, Telma Hopkins had to be recast when she struggled to keep up with Bill Cosby’s ad-libbing. Having worked with Cosby in the past, Phylicia Rashad was cast as a perfect fit for the part. Cosby aired for 4 seasons, with its finale originally airing on April 28, 2000.
For Colored Girls (2010)
Phylicia Rashad was part of the star-studded ensemble cast of Tyler Perry‘s drama For Colored Girls. Perry had adapted the movie’s screenplay from for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, a 1975 choreopoem written by Ntozake Shange. With the story following the lives of 10 black women with interconnected lives, depicted by colors, Phylicia Rashad was cast as Gilda, the Lady in Black, a noisy neighbor and the apartment manager. Rashad co-starred with notable actresses such as Janet Jackson, Thandiwe Newton, Anika Noni Rose, Loretta Devine, Kerry Washington, Tessa Thompson, Kimberly Elise, Whoopi Goldberg, and Michael Ealy.
Good Deeds (2012)
The then-63-year-old Phylicia Rashad returned to the big screen in yet another Tyler Perry production, Good Deeds. Cast in a supporting role, Rashad played Wilimena Deeds, the mother of the titular character Wesley Deeds III (Tyler Perry) and Walter Deeds (Brian J. White). Rashad’s performance as the matriarch of the Deeds family confirmed to newer-generation film audiences that she’s always a force to be reckoned with. Produced on a $14 million budget, Good Deeds grossed $35.6 million at the Box Office.
Creed Films
Playing Clair Huxtable may have been Phylicia Rashad’s biggest television role, but playing Mary Anne Creed has been her most prominent film role. Although the seventh installment in the Rocky film series, Creed (2015) was the film series’ first spin-off movie. With Sylvester Stallone reprising his role as Rocky Balboa, Phylicia Rashad’s character was the stepmother of Michael B. Jordan‘s character, Adonis “Donnie” Creed. Phylicia Rashad reprised the role in the 2015 Creed sequels Creed II (2018) and Creed III (2023). Creed III was one of the two films Phylicia Rashad starred in 2023, with the other being Our Son (2023).
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