Sherri Shepherd

Sherri Shepherd

Celebrity Profile
Birth Date	22 April 1967 (1967-04-22) (age 58)
Hometown	Chicago, Illinois
Known For	The View panelist & actress
Dancing with the Stars 14
Partner(s)	Valentin Chmerkovskiy
Placement	10
Highest Score	24 (Rumba)
Lowest Score	21 (Tango)
Average Score	22.8

Sherri Evonne Shepherd is a celebrity from Season 14 of Dancing with the Stars.

Early Life[]

Shepherd was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of LaVerne (d. 1991) and Lawrence A. Shepherd (born c. 1947), a church deacon. She is the eldest of three sisters.

Career[]

Businesswoman[]

As of 2015, a project includes a line of wigs and hair add-inns.

Acting[]

In 2009, she starred, for one season, in Lifetime Television's Sherri, a sitcom about Shepherd's life.

Shepherd appeared as Daphne in How I Met Your Mother.

Television Personality[]

In 2006, Shepherd was a frequent guest co-host of ABC's The View. She was a permanent co-host from 2007 to 2014. She received several awards for her work on the show.

She co-hosted the 35th Daytime Emmy Awards 20 June 2008.

Shepherd has appeared as a special guest host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

On-camera Flubs[]

Shepherd was criticized after one 2007 broadcast of The View. The show was often filmed "live", with little or no editing. She stated that she didn't "believe in evolution. Period." Co-host Whoopi Goldberg asked her, "Is the world flat?" She first responded, "I don't know," and expanded that she "never thought about it." Shepherd continued that it was more important to her that she thought about how she was "going to feed [her] child." Barbara Walters replied by pointing out, "You can do both." However, Shepherd then went on to quote Scripture. Shepherd later referred to her statement as a "brain fart" brought on by nerves. Barbara Walters and Shepherd talked after that episode: Walters said, "Dear, the Earth is round," and Shepherd responded, "Barbara, I know that!"

Similar criticism erupted after the 4 December 2007 broadcast of The View when, during a discussion initiated by Joy Behar about Epicurus, Shepherd attempted to assert that Christians existed in classical Greece, and that the Greeks threw them to the lions. When confronted on this point, she further claimed that "Jesus came first" (before Greeks and Romans) and stated, "I don't think anything predated Christians," to which Joy Behar responded, "The Jews."

Shepherd garnered ridicule after admitting to never voting partly due to her upbringing as a strict Jehovah's Witness. She was quoted as saying that she just "never knew the dates or anything"; she stated, "I've never voted for anything in my life." In January 2008, Sherri referred to Gospel singer Shirley Caesar as "the black Patti LaBelle." LaBelle, like Caesar, is black.

Sherri said, "I was taught not to confront and interrupt people, but that's what I do every day on The View."

Author[]

Shepherd wrote the book Permission Slips: Every Woman's Guide to Giving Herself a Break, published in October 2009. Shepherd also has a co-author credit on Plan D: How to Lose Weight and Beat Diabetes, published in 2013.

Charity[]

Sherri raises funds for the YAI Sherri Shepherd "Believe in Abilities" Fund.

YAI organization encourages autistic and developmentally challenged children to participate in life.

Fundraising efforts include asking members to donate unused AMEX Membership Rewards points.

Personal Life[]

Shepherd was previously married to Jeff Tarpley. Their son Jeffrey was delivered prematurely.

TV writer Lamar Sally proposed to Shepherd 26 December 2010. They married in August 2011 at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago, and in September 2012, Shepherd said the couple was searching for a surrogate in order to have a child. Sally filed for separation 2 May 2014, and Shepherd filed for divorce days later. In July 2014, Sally petitioned a Los Angeles court for full legal and physical custody of the child expected via surrogacy, who was born in August 2014. On 21 April 2015, a Pennsylvania court ruled Shepherd is the legal parent of a child born from a surrogate mother. The child has no DNA link to Shepherd.

Shepherd has type 2 diabetes after having had pre-diabetes for years.

A devout Christian, Shepherd discussed the role God has played in her life and career, stating "If I didn't have God, I would have been dead."

Dancing with the Stars 14[]

In March 2012, Shepherd participated as a celebrity contestant in the fourteenth season of Dancing with the Stars. Her dance partner was Valentin Chmerkovskiy. The couple finished in 10th place.

Scores[]

Week #	Dance/Song	Judges' Scores			Result
Week #	Dance/Song	Inaba	Goodman	Tonioli	Result
1	Foxtrot / "Sherry"	8	7	8	No elimination
2	Jive / "Proud Mary"	8	7	8	Safe
3	Rumba / "If I Could"	8	8	8	Safe
4	Tango / "Come On Feel the Noise"	7	7	7	Eliminated

Trivia[]

On 14 December 2020, it was announced that she would compete in Celebrity Wheel of Fortune. On 4 March 2021, she competed in the eighth and final episode alongside Rachael Leigh Cook and Kevin Nealon. She won $36,000 for her charity Reel Beauty.