Wanda Sykes
Emmy-Award winning Wanda Sykes is celebrated as one of the most uproarious stand-up comics and ranks among Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Funniest People in America. Her brilliant writing, snarky wit and unforgettable voice have steered her career in many directions. Both personally and professionally, it’s been an eventful year for Sykes. Last June, she was honored with the first-ever Hope of Los Angeles Award, as part of the city’s LGBT Heritage Month celebration. A few months later, Sykes revealed that she’d been diagnosed with DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ), a noninvasive breast cancer; as a proactive measure, she opted for a bilateral mastectomy. After recuperating, Sykes returned to her stand-up tour and the talk show circuit, appearing on NBC’s The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She also explored her family history on “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,” a new PBS series. Currently, her 2012 tour is in full swing with a packed calendar of coast-to-coast shows. This summer, catch Sykes in the season premiere of Comedy Central’s animated sitcom Futurama, as the voice of Bev, a racy robot soda machine; she also voices Granny in Ice Age: Continental Drift, which hits theaters in July.
