Kim LaShaunda Coles (born January 11, 1962) is an American actress, comedian and game show host. Coles is known for her roles as a cast member on ''

In Living Color ''In Living Color'' is an American sketch comedy television series that originally ran on Fox from April 15, 1990 to May 19, 1994. Keenen Ivory Wayans created, wrote and starred in the program. The show was produced by Ivory Way Productions in a ...

'' for the first season (1990-1991) and as Synclaire James-Jones on television sitcom ''

Living Single ''Living Single'' is an American television sitcom created by Yvette Lee Bowser that aired for five seasons on the Fox network from August 22, 1993, to January 1, 1998. The show centered on the lives of six friends who shared personal and professi ...

'' (1993–1998), which both originally aired on

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

. She was the host of

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...

's game show ''Pay It Off'' in 2009.

Early life

Coles was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York City. Her father was the first Black dean of the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

. She attended a private Lutheran school and was quiet and studious until high school, when her sense of humor emerged. She graduated from

Brooklyn Technical High School Brooklyn Technical High School, commonly called Brooklyn Tech and administratively designated High School 430, is an elite public high school in New York City that specializes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is one of th ...

Career

Coles has appeared on many

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

shows, including ''

Frasier ''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons. It premiered on September 16, 1993, and ended on May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey (screenwriter), Peter Case ...

'' ("Dr." Mary Thomas), '' Six Feet Under'', '' Celebrity Mole,

'' and ''

The Geena Davis Show ''The Geena Davis Show'' is an American sitcom television series created by Terri Minsky starring Geena Davis. The show aired for one season on ABC from October 10, 2000, to July 20, 2001, during the 2000–01 U.S. television season. Plot Se ...

''. Early in her career, she appeared as one of the hosts of ''

It's Showtime at the Apollo English auxiliary verbs are a small set of English verbs, which include the English modal verbs and a few others. Although definitions vary, as generally conceived an auxiliary lacks inherent semantic meaning but instead modifies the meaning of an ...

''. She was an original cast member on the

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...

series ''

'' that appeared on the

FOX network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...

. After leaving "In Living Color", she then got the role as Synclaire James on ''

'' and won an

NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series This article lists the winners and nominees for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series. It was known as the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series until 2000. Currently, Tracee Ellis Ross holds the record for most wi ...

. She appeared as the mother of Spirit on

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which prod ...

's '' One on One''. Coles is a published author; her book is called ''I'm Free But It Will Cost You'', , Hyperion Books, 1998. Coles appeared on '' Celebrity Mole: Hawaii'' and was the first contestant to be eliminated. At the reunion of the show, she was one of two celebrities (the other was

Michael Boatman Michael Patrick Boatman (born October 25, 1964) is an American actor and writer. He is known for his roles as New York City mayoral aide Carter Heywood in the ABC sitcom ''Spin City'', as U.S. Army Specialist Samuel Beckett in the ABC drama s ...

) to correctly guess that

Frederique van der Wal Frederique Van Der Wal (also Frédérique van der Wal) is a former model from The Netherlands, known for having appeared in Victoria's Secret and on the covers of magazines such as ''Cosmopolitan'' and ''Vogue''. She grew up in The Hague. Caree ...

was the series' saboteur,

Kathy Griffin Kathleen Mary Griffin (born November 4, 1960) is an American comedian and actress who has starred in television comedy specials and has released comedy albums. In 2007 and 2008, Griffin won Primetime Emmy Awards for her reality show '' Kathy ...

was the winner, and

Erik von Detten Erik Thomas von Detten (born October 3, 1982) is an American singer and former actor. He is known for his roles in ''Escape to Witch Mountain'', ''Toy Story'', ''Brink!'', ''Meego'', ''The Princess Diaries'', ''Complete Savages'', and ''So Weird ...

was the runner-up. Coles also joined other celebrities for a weight loss journey on the

VH-1 VH1 (originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Communic ...

reality show, ''

Celebrity Fit Club ''Celebrity Fit Club'' is a reality television series that follows eight overweight celebrities as they try to lose weight for charity. Split into two competing teams of four, each week teams are given different physical challenges, and weighed t ...

''. After 16 weeks, she lost a total of 24 lbs, and dropping nearly 4 percentage points in body fat, going from 34.7% to 31%. She accomplished this with the help of her team, "Ralphie's Angels". She lost 10.2% of her body weight, dropping down to 196 lbs. Coles was a regular panelist on the 2000 revival of '' To Tell the Truth'' during its second season. She was also featured as a guest host on two episodes of '' The View''. Coles was a co-host of the syndicated daytime television show '' In The Loop With iVillage'' alongside ''

The Apprentice ''The Apprentice'' is a Reality competition, reality talent game show franchise originally aired in 2004 in the United States. Created by U.S.-based British producer Mark Burnett, the show depicts contestants from around the country with variou ...

'' winner

Bill Rancic William Rancic (; born May 16, 1971) is an American entrepreneur who was the first candidate hired by The Trump Organization at the conclusion of the first season of Donald Trump's reality television show ''The Apprentice''. He is married to E! ...

and fellow season one contestant Ereka Vetrini. She has recently joined the cast of '' 10 Items or Less'' on TBS. On September 30, 2009, she hosted the game show ''Pay It Off'', lasted for one season on

, which is similar to ''

Debt Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money or other agreed-upon value to another party, the creditor. Debt is a deferred payment, or series of payments, which differentiates it from an immediate purchase. The ...

''. In 2010, she appeared on ''

RuPaul's Drag Race ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, VH1 (season 9–14) and, beginning with the f ...

''. She appeared in an episode of TV One's series "Life After" in late 2011. Coles has also performed as a stand-up comedian, with some of her material dealing with her struggle with being overweight at times.

Impressions

Robin Givens Robin may refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including: **European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'') ** Bush-robin **Forest ro ...

Marla Gibbs Marla Gibbs (born Margaret Theresa Bradley; June 14, 1931) is an American actress, singer, comedian, writer and television producer, whose career spans six decades. Gibbs is known for her role as George Jefferson's maid, Florence Johnston, in th ...

DJ Spinderella Deidra Muriel Roper (born August 3, 1970), known professionally as DJ Spinderella or simply Spinderella, is an American DJ, rapper and producer. She is best known as a member of the hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa. Roper occasionally appeared in '' T ...

Downtown Julie Brown Julie Dorne Brown, better known as Downtown Julie Brown, is an English-born actress, television personality, SiriusXM DJ and former MTV VJ. Brown is best known as the host of the television music show ''Club MTV'', which ran from 1987 until 19 ...

Personal life

Coles has been married twice, first to

Aton Edwards Aton Edwards (b. c. 1962) is an American expert in the fields of emergency preparedness, self-reliance and sustainable living. He is also an author, inventor, and environmental/social activist. He founded the International Preparedness Network ...

from 1985 to 1995, then to Reggie Mckiver, a former

SWAT In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...

police officer in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

, from 2015 to 2019.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coles, Kim 1962 births 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses American film actresses African-American stand-up comedians American stand-up comedians American television actresses African-American game show hosts African-American television producers Television producers from New York City American women television producers Living people American women comedians North Carolina Central University alumni Participants in American reality television series Brooklyn Technical High School alumni American women film producers Film producers from New York (state) 20th-century American comedians 21st-century American comedians 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American people