Vanessa Lynn Williams

The first African-American to become Miss America, Vanessa was also the first to lose the crown due to the publication of nude photos taken a couple of years prior to her entry into the competition.
(She has since been reinstated as the official winner for 1984!)

For most people, that would've been the end of their career. But not Vanessa..
Since then, she's had a number of best-selling vocal albums, performed to rave reviews in several Broadway shows including Kiss of the Spider Woman, Into the Woods, and Carmen Jones, and appeared in theatrical and tv movies ranging from drama (Soul Food) to musicals (Bye, Bye, Birdie) as well as performing on soundtracks of a number of films including Pocahontas!

Her greatest success has been a tour-de-force performance as scheming editor Wilhelmina Slater on the Ugly Betty tv series. Not resting on her laurels, she's quickly moved on to another hit series as she joined the cast of Desperate Housewives.
She'll be doing genre again, as her schedule permits...

Trivia: Vanessa turned down the lead in Monster's Ball which was then offered to Halle Berry, who won the Oscar for it! Hey, nobody's perfect!
However, Vanessa has won a Tony, a Grammy, several Emmys, and numerous other awards!

Genre appearances include
666 Park Avenue (Olivia Doran)
A Diva's Christmas Carol(Ebony Scrooge)
South Beach (Elizabeth Bauer)
Shaft(Det. Carmen Vasquez)
BoomTown (Det. Katherine Pierce)
WWIII aka Winds of Terror (MJ Blake)
Adventures of Elmo in GrouchLand(Queen of Trash)
Happily Ever After "Beauty and the Beast" (Beauty) 
The Odyssey(Calypso)
FutureSport(Alexandra Torres aka Alex)
Star Trek: Deep Space 9 "Let He Who is Without Sin" (Arandis)
Hoodlum(Francine Hughes)
Eraser(Lee Cullen)
Perry Mason "The Case of the Silenced Singer"
T.J. Hooker"Partners in Death"
Partners in Crime "Celebrity"

Check out...
Vanessa's Official Site
Vanessa Williams Music