Caryn Elaine Johnson

One of only three actresses* with an Oscar for an appearance in a genre film (1990's fantasy Ghost), Whoopi has an amazing list of genre credits in both tv and film.
Extremely talented, she can do everything (writing / producing / performing) except singing!

Genre appearances include...
Stream [webcast] (Jodi)
Life on Mars "Things to Do in New York When You Think You're Dead" (Brother Lovebutter)
Pinnochio 3000 (Cybernia)
A Knight in Camelot (Dr Vivien Morgan)
Golden Dreams (Calafia, the Queen of California / Narrator)
MonkeyBone (Death)
Magical Legend of the Leprechauns (Grand Banshee)
Alice in Wonderland (Cheshire Cat)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Raindeer; The Movie (Stormella, The Evil Ice Queen)
A Christmas Carol [1997] (Spirit of Christmas Present)
Theodore Rex (Katie Coltrane)
Fatal Beauty (Rita Rizolli)
Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella [1997] (Queen Constantina)
The Lion King / The Lion King 1 1/2 (Shenzi the Hyena)
Star Trek: the Next Generation / Star Trek: Generations / Star Trek: Nemesis (Guinan)
Ghost (Oda Mae Brown)
Captain Planet & the Planeteers (Gaia / Mother Earth)
Defenders of Dynatron City (Ms. Megawatt)

Check out...
Whoopi's personal blog
A FanPage

(*Josephine Hull won the Oscar in 1950 for the fantasy Harvey, and Ruth Gordon won in 1968 for the horror tale Rosemary's Baby!)

Shenzi has also been played by Tress MacNeille in Timon & Pumba.
Gaia has also been played by Margot Kidder in The New Adventures of Captain Planet
The Queen in previous versions of Rogers & Hammerstein's Cinderella has been played by Ginger Rogers [1965] and Dorothy Stickney [1957]

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