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Television Host and Actress Brings Laughter to Students
By Rachel Judy
November 2, 2009
Sherri Shepherd
Award-winning actress Sherri Shepherd makes it her mission to make other people laugh. And, during an October 30 appearance at Regent's School of Communication & the Arts, that's exactly what she did.
"I feel so fulfilled when I see people laugh and they forget about their pain," she told the audience of students.
Shepherd is best known as one of the Emmy®-winning co-hosts of ABC's The View and as the executive producer and star of the successful Lifetime sitcom, Sherri.
During her appearance, Shepherd talked candidly about her life beyond her career, sharing her struggles with faith, divorce and almost losing her son when he was born prematurely.
Some days were especially hard, she recalled, because she would make people laugh while on stage, then fight to keep it together off-camera. "In between the camera bits, I was crying," she said of dealing with her divorce while working on The View.
In spite of her struggles, Shepherd is excited about her role on daytime television, where she is frequently called on to debate hot-button issues with co-hosts Barbara Walters, Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. "I absolutely love my job," she said.
When she's not co-hosting The View, Shepherd is working on a number of other projects, including her sitcom Sherri. Playing a divorced mother trying to balance work with raising her son, the role is loosely based on her own life. It's a role that has also struck a chord with her audiences. "Women write in all the time and say thank you for telling my story," she notes.
Written with those same women in mind, Shepherd recently published an autobiography titled Permission Slips: Every Woman's Guide to Giving Herself a Break. "We take on so much guilt and we hang onto it," Shepherd said. "We have to let it go."
As she closed her time with the Regent audience, Shepherd encouraged students interested in working in the entertainment industry to pursue their dreams without compromising their convictions, saying "You have to decide before you get [roles] what your boundaries are."
PR/NEWS CONTACT: Judy Baker
Public Relations
Phone: 757.352.4307 Fax: 757.352.4888
E-mail: judibak@regent.edu
