Rolonda Watts
Encyclopedia
Early life
Watts was born in a family of educators. Her mother, Dr. Velma Gibson Watts, was an associate dean at Wake Forest UniversityWake Forest University
Wake Forest University is a private, coeducational university in the U.S. state of North Carolina, founded in 1834. The university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, is...
and her father, Roland Watts, was chairman of Winston-Salem State University's
Winston-Salem State University
Winston-Salem State University , a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina, is a historically black public research university located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. It is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund.Winston-Salem State has been...
Fine Arts Department. Watts attended Winston-Salem's Salem Academy
Salem Academy
Salem Academy is a boarding and day school for high school girls in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It is formally known as Salem Academy and College where it shares its campus with Salem College, located near historic Old Salem...
as a teenager.
She is a graduate of Spelman College
Spelman College
Spelman College is a four-year liberal arts women's college located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The college is part of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium in Atlanta. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman was the first historically black female...
where she was editor-in-chief of the school newspaper and graduated Magna Cum Laude. In 1981, she earned a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is one of Columbia's graduate and professional schools. It offers three degree programs: Master of Science in journalism , Master of Arts in journalism and a Ph.D. in communications...
.
Career highlights
After graduating from Columbia, Watts returned to North Carolina and began her career as a general assignment reporter at WFMY-TVWFMY-TV
WFMY-TV is a television station in Greensboro, North Carolina. Owned by the Gannett Company, WFMYis the CBS affiliate for the Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem area...
in Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
. She later worked at WNBC
WNBC
WNBC, virtual channel 4 , is the flagship station of the NBC television network, located in New York City. WNBC's studios are co-located with NBC corporate headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown Manhattan...
, where she was nominated for an Emmy, and WABC-TV
WABC-TV
WABC-TV, channel 7, is the flagship station of the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Company located in New York City. The station's studios and offices are located on the Upper West Side section of Manhattan, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State...
in New York as an anchor of a weekly political forum and reporter.
In 1987, she began working as a host of Attitudes, a talk show on Lifetime Television
Lifetime Television
Lifetime Television, often referred to as Lifetime TV, or most commonly, Lifetime, is an American cable television specialty channel devoted to movies, sitcoms and dramas, all of which are either geared toward women or feature women in lead roles. The cable network is owned by A&E Television Networks...
. The next year, she took a job on the newsmagazine Inside Edition
Inside Edition
Inside Edition is a thirty-minute American television syndicated news program, first aired on CBS on October 9, 1988. It was originally similar to the programs Hard Copy and A Current Affair, but now more closely resembles a condensed version of breakfast television, exclusively with pre-recorded...
as a senior correspondent, weekend anchor and producer. King World Productions
King World Productions
King World Productions, Inc. was a production company and a syndicator of television programming in the United States until its eventual 2007 incorporation into CBS Television Distribution...
, the syndicator of Inside Edition and also The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
, then asked her to start her own talk show.
Rolonda
Rolonda
Rolonda was a syndicated daytime talk show that aired from January 17, 1994 to September 1997. It featured Rolonda Watts as the host, and was produced and distributed by King World Productions .-Background:...
aired for three and a half seasons from January 1994 to December 1997. Watts was also supervising producer and one of the owners of the show.
In a 2003 interview with Soap Opera Digest
Soap Opera Digest
Soap Opera Digest is a weekly magazine covering American daytime soap operas. It features onscreen and offscreen news about the series, interviews with and articles about performers, storyline summaries and analysis, and related promotional information...
, Watts said she folded the show rather than lose her integrity. "Audiences were saying, 'Well, that was really nice of you to be so respectful, but where's Jerry [Springer]?' We had to make a tough decision, either we go that route or we find something else to do."
After leaving her talk show behind, Watts headed to Hollywood to pursue a career in acting. Her first break was in 1997 when she was cast as Vivica Shaw in Sister, Sister
Sister, Sister (TV series)
Sister, Sister is an American television sitcom about identical twin girls Tia Landry and Tamera Campbell , who were separated and adopted at birth, when one day they come face-to-face after 14 years apart....
, a role she played for six episodes.
Since then Watts has had guest starring roles in dozens of television shows, including The West Wing
The West Wing (TV series)
The West Wing is an American television serial drama created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999 to May 14, 2006...
, JAG
JAG (TV series)
JAG is an American adventure/legal drama television show that was produced by Belisarius Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television and, for the first season only, NBC Productions...
, The District
The District
The District is a television police drama which aired on CBS from October 7, 2000 to May 1, 2004. The show followed the work and personal life of the chief of Washington, D.C.'s Police Department .-Premise:...
Yes, Dear
Yes, Dear
Yes, Dear is a television sitcom that aired from October 2, 2000, to February 15, 2006, on CBS. It starred Anthony Clark, Jean Louisa Kelly, Mike O'Malley and Liza Snyder....
, and soap operas Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
and The Bold and The Beautiful
The Bold and the Beautiful
The Bold and the Beautiful is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS Daytime. It premiered on March 23, 1987....
.
In 2002, Soap Opera Digest
Soap Opera Digest
Soap Opera Digest is a weekly magazine covering American daytime soap operas. It features onscreen and offscreen news about the series, interviews with and articles about performers, storyline summaries and analysis, and related promotional information...
named her "Scene Stealer of the Week" for her role as the cut-throat Attorney Cameron Reese on Days of our Lives.
Watts is also the CEO/president of her own production company, Watts Works Productions, which co-produced her talk show Rolonda.
In 2005, she hosted Lie Detector, a reality series for PAX-TV. She also appeared on Live With Regis and Kelly
Live with Regis and Kelly
Live! with Kelly is a syndicated American television morning talk show, hosted by Kelly Ripa. The show has aired since 1983 in New York City and 1988 nationwide. Tony Pigg has been the show's announcer since its inception...
where she traveled cross-country as a judge for the show's "Great American Co-Host Search."
In October 2006, Watts returned to her talk-show roots. She signed with GreenStone Media, a radio network launched by feminists Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem
Gloria Marie Steinem is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader of, and media spokeswoman for, the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s...
and Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
, to host an afternoon radio show. She hosted the show until the network's closure in August 2007. Subsequently, Watts was the announcer for the game show Temptation
Temptation (2007 US game show)
Temptation: The New Sale of the Century was a television game show loosely based on both the original Australian and American Sale of the Century versions, plus the 2005 Australian version, also titled Temptation. The show began airing in syndication on September 10, 2007, with the last first-run...
from September 2007 to May 2008.
As of 2011, Watts is the voice of Professor Wiseman in the PBS Kids
PBS Kids
PBS Kids is the brand for children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States founded in 1993. As with all PBS programming, PBS Kids programming is non-commercial. It is aimed at children ages 2 to 10...
animated program Curious George
Curious George (TV series)
Curious George is an animated television series based on the Curious George children's book series, which features Jeff Bennett as the voice of The Man with the Yellow Hat. Frank Welker, who voiced George in the 2006 feature film, returns here as the voice of Curious George. The stories of Season...
. She voices "Gladys" in the Nickelodeon series, "The Penguins of Madagascar."
Watts is currently shooting two films, with five others waiting for release, including her first starring role in A Mother's Love and leading roles in Christmas Mail, House Arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
, Soul Ties, Broken Roads and 25 Hill
25 hill
25 Hill is a drama film written and directed by Corbin Bernsen about the All-American Soap Box Derby, the championships of which are held each August in Akron, OH. It stars Nathan Gamble, Corbin Bernsen, Maureen Flannigan, and Ralph Waite.-Plot:...
, a film written and produced by Corbin Bernsen
Corbin Bernsen
Corbin Dean Bernsen is an American actor and director, known for his work on television. He is best known for his roles as divorce attorney Arnold Becker on the NBC drama series L.A. Law, and as retired police detective Henry Spencer on the USA Network comedy-drama series Psych...
. In the short film Return to Babylon
Return to Babylon
Return to Babylon is an upcoming silent film. It was directed by Alex Monty Canawati and written by Matt Riddlehoover. It stars an ensemble cast of Jennifer Tilly, María Conchita Alonso, Ione Skye, Debi Mazar, and Tippi Hedren.-Plot:...
, Watts portrays Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess"....
; in Defying the Stars. she plays Hollywood legend Dorothy Dandridge
Dorothy Dandridge
Dorothy Jean Dandridge was an American actress and popular singer, and was the first African-American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress...
.