On any given evening, Sherri Shepherd can be caught chatting it up and taking selfies with fans at her favorite Harlem watering hole just steps away from the Apollo Theater. The longtime resident of what is arguably Black America’s most famous neighborhood has kept busy since the end of her eponymous talk show in May; she’s firing on all cylinders with back-to-back projects.
“Joan Rivers told me years ago that no matter what, funny girls will always work,” Shepherd told URL-Media this week.
The 59-year-old Chicago native is a living testimony of that.
Shepherd is already having the best week ever with Tuesday’s announcement that she will be making Broadway history as the first woman to star as Genie in “Aladdin”; the premiere of her starring role in Lifetime’s “Angel In The Rubble: The Genelle Guzman Story“; and a big return to “The View” to kick off its 30th record-breaking season.
Not bad for someone who was seemingly put out to pasture by Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury – the TV syndicator that pulled the plug on the award-winning talk show “Sherri,” where she reigned supreme in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Three months removed from the airing of her final show, Shepherd looks back at the experience with mixed emotions.
“I think it was amazing to have that platform for four seasons to be able to spotlight those who may not have had the chance to get a spotlight, like Kiki Shepard, who it was such a joy to know that she was able to get a standing ovation before she passed,” she said in reference to the legendary “Showtime at the Apollo” star, who died earlier this year.
“To be able to feature Jayne Kennedy, who had been trying to get a book deal, and wasn’t able to get a book deal until I talked about it in the ‘Hot Topics’ segment,” Shepherd added. “To have her talk about her extraordinary life, and bring nostalgia back was great.”
She also mentioned “Sherri” highlights including an entire hour dedicated to iconic R&B group New Edition and interviewing Dolly Parton, who was on her wishlist: “To have those memories and to know I could, you know, showcase new comics on the show, it meant the world to me.”
‘Another part of life that you access’
As far as the scuttlebutt surrounding the unexpected cancelation, which Debmar-Mercury attributed to “the evolving daytime television landscape and does not reflect on the strength of the show,” the Daytime Emmy Award winner said that there must be an understanding that “at the end of the day, it’s a money and a numbers game.”
“Would I have liked people to believe in me a little bit more, and really try to just keep going through the difficult times because it would have turned around at the end? Yeah, I think so,” she added. “I think so because I was really getting in front of people with a lot more eyes. But I also understand folks that want to make money, they want to see a return on their investment.”
But back to Joan Rivers’ sage words; a week after production wrapped on “Sherri,” the funnywoman was enroute to South Africa to begin filming her latest dramatic role.
In the Robin Roberts-produced, Manu Boyer-directed Lifetime film based on the bestselling memoir by Genelle Guzman-McMillan, Shepherd portrays the last survivor pulled alive from the World Trade Center debris after being trapped for 27 hours following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City.
“When they came to me, I didn’t know about Genelle’s story, I didn’t hear too much about the last survivor. So reading her book, I just was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what a trip to be buried alive and then not to mention that she was able to find peace with God and had prepared to die,” she said.
Shepherd said Guzman-Millian’s belief that God sent an angel to save her is what drew her to the story: “As a woman of faith and as a mother, and just as a person who sees the glass half full, Genelle seeing it as all the way full, made me really eager to play this part and to stretch myself.”
With previous roles in Lee Daniels’ Academy Award-nominated “Precious” and Tyler Perry’s 2025 Taraji P. Henson-fronted potboiler “Straw,” the “Two Funny Mamas” podcaster is open for more onscreen drama.
“It feels nice that people are seeing me in this light, because, you know, being a comedic actress, it is hard getting an audition for a drama because people tend to put you in a box and they think all you do, especially doing a talk show, is make people laugh and that’s it,” she shared. “They forget that you have another part of life that you access, so you know this was a role where I stretched myself, and I always try to just build upon what I’ve done before.”
And then there’s Shepherd’s big return to the Great White Way. In 2014, she made her Broadway debut as the wicked stepmother in the Tony-Award-winning revival of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s “Cinderella.” In that historic production, KeKe Palmer became the first Black actress to portray the titular role.
Now she’s gearing up to be a part of musical theater history once again. On Oct. 16, Shepherd will take over the role as Genie in Disney’s “Aladdin” on Broadway. Scheduled through the new year, she will be the first woman to play the role in the smash hit production, which ranks as the 14th-longest-running show on Broadway,
‘If it scares you, run toward it’
“It’s so funny because I was the first Black woman to play the evil stepmother on Broadway… and to now be the first woman to play the genie on Broadway is so exciting because I always see the little girls dressed as princesses when they come to see ‘Aladdin,’” she said. “Now I will see little girls thinking outside the box and dressing as the genie when they come, and that’s what excites me because my hope is for little girls to actually say, ‘I don’t have to ride on the magic carpet, I can create the magic carpet’ or ‘I can make wishes come true, I’m not looking for wishes.’ So that excites me that little girls are gonna walk through that door at the New Amsterdam Theatre, and number one, they always love the genie, but they will see themselves in me.”
Shepherd said when offered the plum gig, she didn’t hesitate: “Nobody had to talk me into it. I said yes as soon as they asked me, I said yes because it scared the hell out of me, and my mantra is: if it scares you, run towards it.”
“I’m coming out of my comfort zone because I’m not a professional singer nor a professional dancer, but I am now that I will sometimes have to do 10 shows a week,” she shared, describing the daily, seven-hour rehearsal process as “grueling.”
“I got the masseuse, and the physical therapist on speed dial because I’ve never used my ankles this much,” she said. “I didn’t even know I had a tendon behind the back of my daggone leg. Didn’t know until that thing said, ‘Hey, code red.'”
And if that’s not enough on her plate, Shepherd is looking forward to her return to the talk show that made her household name. The funnywoman — who co-hosted the Barbara Walters-created chatfest from 2007 to 2014 —has been tapped to guest-host during this season.
“You know, that’s the thing about ‘The View,’ you never really leave, and that’s a family, and I have really good relationships with everybody,” the “Plan D” author said. “So the fact that they love me and allow me to come on all the time to promote my stuff, that’s a testament.”
“And that’s why I tell people to watch the way you exit because you might see those same people and might want to go back,” she said, adding: “But if you don’t have good relationships, forget it.”
And if that wasn’t enough to keep her busy, Shepherd will be making her foray into the romantic-fiction genre. Already a New York Times bestseller with three tomes under her belt, she has just finished penning “Life is a K Drama,” co-written with best-selling romance and fantasy author Jayci Lee about the unlikely coupling of a Harlem-based soul-food restaurateur and the unassuming heir to a Korean business dynasty.
“I’ve always wanted to write a romance novel, and I’m obsessed with K dramas,” she revealed, before adding: “But I always would look at it and say, ‘You know, the formula, the rich Korean man falling in love with the secretary, or falling in love with this type of Korean woman was great, and I’m sitting here going, I’m a Black woman, and I love this. Why can’t a Black woman fall in love with a rich Korean man? So I figured, if you don’t see it, create it.”
Harper Collins will publish the book, which is scheduled for release in April 2027.
MORE FROM URL MEDIA
- Deborah Cox on career longevity, leveling up on Broadway by way of ex-boss Céline Dion and launching family wine business
- Tracee Ellis Ross tackles Black mental health with Broadway debut
- Harry Lennix on taking on Paul Robeson, doing “Purpose” and never getting away from “The Five Heartbeats”
- ‘Hadestown’ star Andre De Shields reflects on his enduring legacy and unexpected closing of ‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball’
- Rock and soul pioneer Nona Hendryx on keeping the Labelle legacy alive on her own terms
- Rising filmmaker Stacey L. Holman’s ‘Declarations’ embraces AI for a new spin on untold stories of Revolutionary War-era enslaved people
