{"id":2939,"date":"2015-04-29T15:26:25","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T19:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.abff.com\/?p=2939"},"modified":"2016-03-25T08:47:48","modified_gmt":"2016-03-25T12:47:48","slug":"actress-jenifer-lewis-will-be-honored-at-the-best-of-the-abff-awards-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abff.com\/archive\/2017\/actress-jenifer-lewis-will-be-honored-at-the-best-of-the-abff-awards-ceremony\/","title":{"rendered":"Actress Jenifer Lewis will be honored at the ABFF’s “Best of the ABFF” Awards Ceremony with a Career Achievement Award on Sunday, June 14 at the Hilton Midtown."},"content":{"rendered":"

Jenifer Lewis is one of Hollywood’s most familiar faces, with more than 300 appearances in film and television. Her latest movie, The Wedding Ringer<\/em> (Sony Pictures), marks the fourth time she has starred alongside Kevin Hart. Known as the \u201cBlack Mother of Hollywood,\u201d Jenifer currently guest stars on the hit show Black-ish<\/em> (ABC), in the recurring role of “Ruby.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Jenifer is a multi-talented entertainer who performed to an electrifying standing ovation at Carnegie Hall when she sang with the New York Pops orchestra in April 2014.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Recently, Jenifer appeared in Think Like A Man<\/em>, Think Like A Man Too<\/em> (Sony Pictures) and Baggage Claim<\/em> (Fox Searchlight.) The Magic City<\/em>, an independent film for which Jenifer won the Best Actress award at the BronzeLens Film Festival, will debut in 2015.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Jenifer delivered legendary performances as Tina Turner’s mother in What’s Love Got to Do With It<\/em> and in The Preacher’s Wife<\/em> as the mother of Whitney Houston’s character. She portrayed the distraught mother, “Candace,” opposite Matt Damon in Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter<\/em> and for director Tyler Perry, Jenifer created unforgettable characters in Madea’s Family Reunion<\/em> and Meet the Browns<\/em>. In the movie Castaway<\/em>, Jenifer portrayed Tom Hanks’ boss.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

In animated films, Jenifer’s uniquely recognizable voice is adored by Disney fans worldwide in roles such as “Flo” in Cars<\/em> and Cars 2<\/em> and as “Mama Odie” in The Princess and the Frog<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Jenifer’s TV roles have ranged from regular appearances as “Aunt Helen” on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air<\/em> to guest star roles on Friends<\/em>, Boston Legal<\/em> and Girlfriends<\/em>. For six seasons, Jenifer portrayed “Lana Hawkins” on Lifetime’s hit series Strong Medicine<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

In September 2012, Jenifer premiered in a self-produced webseries, Jenifer Lewis and Shangela<\/em>, available on YouTube.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

Music and Theater<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Although best known for her Hollywood success, Jenifer has enjoyed a wide-ranging and varied career in music and theater for more than 30 years. In 2013, Jenifer won a Bistro Award for her show titled Black Don’t Crack<\/em>, which drew standing-room only crowds to 54 Below cabaret in New York City.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Jenifer began performing on Broadway within one month of graduating with a degree in theater arts. Over the years, she has graced the Broadway stage in four shows, most recently in the hit show Hairspray<\/em> as \u201cMotormouth Maybelle.\u201d Also in New York, Jenifer enjoyed critical acclaim co-starring opposite Meryl Streep in the Shakespeare in the Park production of Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children<\/em>. In Seattle, Jenifer wowed audiences as Dolly Levi in the venerable 5th Avenue Theatre’s production of Hello Dolly!<\/em> In 2012, Jenifer returned to her hometown as a guest performer with the 90-piece St. Louis Symphony, accompanied by a chorus of more than 100 voices. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

As a solo performer early in her career, Ms. Lewis toured colleges with her tribute From Billie to Lena<\/em> and delighted audiences worldwide with a string of cabaret shows, including the award-winning The Diva is Dismissed<\/em>. Briefly, she toured as a \u201cHarlette\u201d with Bette Midler. All told, Ms. Lewis has presented more than 200 concerts, performing in 49 states and four continents.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

Giving Back<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

In addition to her achievements as a performer, Jenifer is committed to community issues. Having lost many friends to the AIDS epidemic, Jenifer is a forceful proponent for AIDS education and treatment and has performed at more than 15 AIDS walks around the country. Jenifer has presented four one-woman shows to raise funds for youth housing at the Los Angeles LGBT Center and in November 2014, the Human Rights Campaign recognized Jenifer with its Ally for Equality Award.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Jenifer also advocates on behalf of mental health issues. In 2007, Jenifer chose The Oprah Winfrey Show<\/em> as a platform to reveal that she has bipolar disorder. She continues to speak nationally for the eradication of stigma against people with mental illness.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Jenifer was born and raised in Kinloch, Missouri. She holds a bachelor’s degree in theater arts from Webster University in St. Louis, which will grant her an honorary doctorate in May 2015. Fans can follow Jenifer on Twitter (@JeniferLewis) and Facebook (Jenifer Lewis For Real.)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jenifer Lewis is one of Hollywood’s most familiar faces, with more than 300 appearances in film and television. Her latest movie, The Wedding Ringer (Sony Pictures), marks the fourth time […]","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":2940,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abff.com\/archive\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abff.com\/archive\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abff.com\/archive\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abff.com\/archive\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abff.com\/archive\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2939"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/abff.com\/archive\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5843,"href":"https:\/\/abff.com\/archive\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2939\/revisions\/5843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abff.com\/archive\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abff.com\/archive\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abff.com\/archive\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abff.com\/archive\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}