Phylicia Rashad

In her two-hour interview, Phylicia Rashad recounts childhood memories growing up in Houston, TX and in Mexico City, Mexico. She describes her parents and acknowledges the accomplishments of her mother, poet Vivian Ayers. She vividly recalls when she decided to be an actress, after the attention she received (and her later understanding of "the beauty of communication from the heart,") following a reading at a local music festival. She notes her studies at Howard University and the start of her acting career in New York City. She acknowledges her work on Broadway and how she briefly became a regular on the daytime television serial One Life to Live. She speaks in great detail about the role and series for which she is most associated, "Claire Huxtable" on The Cosby Show. Regarding The Cosby Show, she talks about auditioning for the part, describes her character, discusses working with Bill Cosby (and the cast) and outlines a typical workweek on the series. She then talks about her work in the spin-off series A Different World. She recounts working on the subsequent series Cosby and gives her impressions of her co-stars, particularly Madeline Kahn. She comments on some of her later work, including the television movie A Raisin in the Sun, for which she reprised her Tony Award-winning role. Jim Colucci conducted the interview on October 22, 2007 in New York, NY.