- Born
- Birth namePhylicia Ayers-Allen
- Height1.68 m
- Phylicia Rashad was born in Houston, Texas to African-American parents Vivian Elizabeth (Ayers), a poet and art director, and Andrew Arthur Allen, an orthodontist. As a child, Phylicia, her older brother Andrew (called Tex), and younger sister, dancer and actress Debbie Allen, lived in Mexico. She has another brother, Hugh Allen (a real-estate banker in North Carolina). Their mother decided to live in Mexico to give the Allen children a brief experience of not having to endure the chronic racism and segregation that was typical of Texas during the 1950s. Phylicia and Debbie are fluent in Spanish. Phylicia graduated from Howard University and later taught drama there.
With younger sister Debbie Allen, she has a production company, D.A.D., which stood for Doctor Allen's Daughters. Her Pulitzer-nominated mother is the artistic and free spirit that has influenced and encouraged the remarkable creativity that so marks Rashad as a performer.- IMDb mini biography by: lilkunta
- SpousesAhmad Rashad(December 14, 1985 - February 2001) (divorced, 1 child)Victor Willis(April 28, 1978 - 1980) (divorced)William Lancelot Bowles Jr.(May 13, 1972 - 1975) (divorced, 1 child)
- ChildrenWilliam Lancelot Bowles IIIKeva RashadMaiysha Rashad
- ParentsVivian Elizabeth Ayers
- RelativesDebbie Allen(Sibling)Norman Nixon Jr.(Niece or Nephew)Vivian Nixon(Niece or Nephew)
- Ahmad Rashad proposed to her on national TV during the halftime show of NBC's Thanksgiving Day broadcast of the game between the Detroit Lions and the New York Jets. Earlier in the day, she had worked NBC's Macy's Thanksgiving Day telecast. Within minutes of hearing Ahmad's request, she came onto NBC's "NFL Live" halftime set and accepted his proposal live on TV. O.J. Simpson was best man at her 1985 wedding to Ahmad Rashad and Bill Cosby walked her down the aisle.
- Phylicia's second ex-husband, Victor Willis, was the lead singer of The Village People. They divorced in 1982.
- Phylicia Rashad and her sister Debbie Allen both speak Spanish fluently because they lived in Mexico during part of their childhood, where the family moved in an attempt to escape the pervasive racism that was prevalent in 1950s America.
- Has two children: son William Lancelot "Billy" Bowles III (born: 1973, father: William Lancelot Bowles Jr.); and daughter Dola Rashad (born: December 11, 1986, father: Ahmad Rashad). And three stepchildren from her marriage to Ahmad as well.
- Phylicia Rashad's Cosby Show (1984) matriarch character, Clair Huxtable, was voted "TV mom closest to your own mom in spirit" by the survey participants in an April 2004 poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation.
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