Born Sherri Evonne Shepherd on April 22, 1970 in Chicago, IL, Shepherd and her three sisters were raised by her parents in the all-white suburb of Hoffman Estates. A self-confessed class clown, Shepherd harbored an interest in a performing career from an early age, but her father (a fast food restaurant manager) paid for her to attend a trade college and earn a living as a legal secretary. Her love for comedy, however, was re-ignited after catching Andrew “Dice” Clay in concert. So with the encouragement of friends, she began the brutal practice of playing comedy clubs at night.

Shepherd relocated to Los Angeles in the early ‘90s and quickly found her way into the West Coast stand-up comedy scene. She soon joined her first television series – the comedy “Cleghorne!” (The WB, 1995) starring former “Saturday Night Live” (NBC, 1975- ) performer Ellen Cleghorne – but its cancellation forced her to return to legal work to make ends meet. During this time, Shepherd experienced several personal setbacks – from the death of her mother to legal trouble – causing the former Jehovah’s Witness to convert to Christianity as a source of solace. Her religious shift would go on to inform her stand-up.

After her personal life returned to some semblance of order, Shepherd began making the rounds on various television sitcoms. She logged multiple appearances on “Suddenly Susan” (NBC, 1996-2000) and “The Jamie Foxx Show” (The WB, 1996-2001), as well as received perhaps her largest audience to date with nine turns on “Everybody Loves Raymond” (CBS, 1996-2005), playing the feisty police officer partner of Robert Barone (Brad Garrett).

The increased exposure from such a popular sitcom unsurprisingly led to more work on television and later film for the rotund comic. She landed a series regular role on the ABC comedy “Less Than Perfect” (2002-2006), and had memorable supporting roles in the features “Guess Who” (2004) and “Beauty Shop” (2005). Her gift for gab also helped her become a popular guest on syndicated game shows and daytime talk programs, especially “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” (syndicated, 2003- ), where she held the record for most guest appearances. Shepherd also found time to branch out into voice-over work, lending her pipes for the Disney Channel series “Kim Possible” (2002- ) and “Brandy and Mr. Whiskers” (2004- ). During this time, she also continued to perform stand-up at popular venues in Los Angeles and released a self-produced performance DVD, which was available through her web site.

Shepherd began filling in as a guest host on “The View” in 2005 and quickly won over viewers with her brassy humor and frank discussion of the dissolution of her marriage to comedian Jeff Tarpley (with whom she has a son) – reportedly due to his infidelity. Rumors began circulating in early 2007 that Shepherd would eventually fill the seat vacated by Star Jones on a permanent basis. At the same time, industry media outlets began reporting that Buena Vista was grooming Shepherd for a solo outing with her own daytime talk show. But after months of speculation, it was announced in September that Shepherd would, indeed, be filling a permanent seat at "The View" table, replacing Jones and being the second African-American to sit at the table for the new season – with Whoopi Goldberg being the first, after replacing Rosie O'Donnell as moderator.