American comedian and actress Wanda Sykes was BOTD in 1964. Born in Portsmouth, Virginia to a middle-class family, she was raised in Maryland and studied at Hampton University. While working at the National Security Agency, she began performing stand-up comedy, eventually moving to New York to pursue a showbiz career. She performed frequently with Chris Rock, writing for his TV series The Chris Rock Show, for which she won an Emmy. She rose to greater public attention with acting roles in sitcoms Curb Your Enthusiasm, The New Adventures of Old Christine, a well-reviewed HBO comedy special and her own late-night talk show The Wanda Sykes Show. She has appeared in the films Monster-in-Law, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Evan Almighty and as a voice actor in Ice Age Continental Drift. In recent years, she has appeared in comedy series Black-ish, The Marvellous Mrs Maisel and The Good Fight. In 2022, she co-hosted the Oscars ceremony and guest-hosted The Daily Show. Sykes was married to record producer Dave Hall for seven years, with whom she had two children. She came out as lesbian in 2008 at a same-sex marriage rally, marrying her partner Alex Niedbalski later that year. A prominent activist for LGBTQ causes, she works as a spokesperson for the “Think Before You Speak” campaign to encourage young people to stop using homophobic slurs.