Erika Rose Alexander was born on November 19, 1969, in Arizona to Rev. Robert Alexander who was a touring preacher. Owing to her father’s job they moved to a lot of cities before settling down in Philadelphia, where she went to Philadelphia High School for Girls. It was here that her talent for acting was discovered. She then went to the Philadelphia’s Freedom Theatre & became a famous graduate on bagging the lead in a Merchant-Ivory film at 15. Later, she toured with the Royal Shakespeare Company before being cast by Joseph Papp, founder of Public Theatre, New York City Fame.
Her biography reveals that it was the character of cousin Pam Tucker in the Bill Cosby Show (1990-92) which skyrocketed Erika to fame. She experimented with her acting skills & eventually landed up playing the iron-willed & fiery character of Maxine Shaw on the famous sitcom Living Single, which she went on to play for 5 straight years. For her tremendously amazing performance for this role, Erika was also cast in similar roles in various sitcoms where she appeared now & then. In 1992, she appeared in a sitcom called Going To Extremes, which was much acclaimed though short-lived. She played the adorable young Flora in Mama Flora’s Family, a TV Miniseries.
She did several TV Shows since 2009 including Criminal Minds, CSI: Miami, Numb3rs, Law & Order, Half & Half, In Justice, In Plain Sight, Heist, 7th Heaven, CSI, Street Time, House, Suburgatory, Suits, Last Man Standing, Low Winter Sun, Let’s Stay Together, NCIS: New Orleans & the recent Grey’s Anatomy. Her strong portrayal of a determined character has helped her bag most of her roles in the TV Shows. Her viewers critically acclaimed her character of Shanti in the flick Déjà vu. She also appeared in La Mission starring Benjamin Bratt.
Very little known fact about Erika is that she played the role of Hidimbi, a mythological character of Hindu Mythology in the series Mahabharata the Peter Brook directed.
Apart from being a successful actress, she is also a very well known Social Activist & has campaigned for Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Elections. By responding to Ludacris to his song, she criticized the objectification of women in the genre & also cited the achievements of Hillary Clinton. She is also a delegate to Africa for the No Limits Foundation & the Clinton Global Initiative. She took an active part in the “I Know” AIDS campaign for AIDS awareness.
Erika is often envied for her enduring wedding with her husband Tony Puryear who is a screenwriter in 1997 and they have been together ever since then.Apart from being an accomplished actress, Erika is also one of the richest celebrities with an estimated $245 Million as her net worth. She attributes her net worth to the stock investments, fat endorsement deals & her acting fees. Along with this she also owns restaurants chains & has recently launched her own brand of Vodka, Perfume & Fashion Line. Erika topped the list of Top 10 highest paid actresses of 2016.
| Birth Date: | 19 Nov, 1969 |
| Age: | 50 yrs |
| Occupations: | Television actor Film actor Actor |
| Citizenship: | United States of America |
| Birth Place: | Winslow |
| Education: | Philadelphia High School for Girls |
| Gender: | Female |
| Description: | Actress |
| Net Worth 2021: | 3 million |
