Actress and singer Leslie Marian Uggams was born in the United States on May 25, 1943. Uggams began her career as a child actor in the early 1950s.
She is most known for her role as Kizzy Reynolds in the television miniseries Roots (1977), for which she received nominations for both a Golden Globe and an Emmy.
Prior to this, she had received widespread praise for the Broadway production of Hallelujah, Baby!, for which she was honored with the Theatre World Award in 1967 and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1968.
With roles in Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 (2018) as Blind Al with Ryan Reynolds and with a recurrent part on Empire, Uggams later in her career earned new attention.
Leslie Uggams children: Danielle Chambers, Justice Pratt
Uggams and her husband met while attending the Professional Children’s School of New York. He ended up becoming her manager when they met while she was playing in Sydney as part of one of Uggams’ celebrity tours of Australia.
The couple gave birth to their daughter Danielle, born in 1970, and son Justice, born in 1976.
