A native of Los Angeles, Wendy studied the theater at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
“I guess I was always a dramatic child,” she said in a 2006 interview with www.beautycomeforth.com. “After I graduated from Washington High, there was nothing else that I really wanted to do other than act, dance and do the arts.
“My mother said, 'If you're going to do this, then do it all the way and be an expert at it,'” she said. “I found out Debbie Allen actually graduated from Howard University. She had always inspired me to do so much and I've always admired her career. She became a huge mentor to me, even to this day.”
After graduating cum laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama, Wendy returned to LA. She couldn't get an agent, a job or even a phone call returned. She joined a touring company of “Beauty Shop” and worked on the road the next four years, saving her money. Eventually, she returned to Hollywood, found an agent and began getting jobs.
Wendy made her TV acting debut in a 1993 episode of “Martin,” and also appeared in “The Sinbad Show,” “Dream On,” and “NYPD Blues.” One year before “Steve Harvey,” she starred as Rachel Aims in 20 episodes of “Minor Adjustments.”
Classic TV Beauties 1990s Countdown
WENDY RAQUEL ROBINSON as Regina Grier in "The Steve Harvey Show"
Looking unlike any principal we've ever known, Regina was the exquisite, stylish and beautiful head mistress of Chicago's Booker T. Washington High School. A foil and the romantic interest of Steve Hightower (Harvey). Regina always dressed to the nines with in-vogue clothes and she always wore a fashionable hair style.
In spite of her radiant beauty, Regina was often insecure and she was highly competitive. Regina would shout her signature catch phrase “Bam! In your face!” after besting Steve. She once cheated him in a game of Scrabble because he was a better player and she knew she couldn't beat him fair and square..
Steve sometimes called Regina “Piggy” because she was overweight when she was younger and the two were high school classmates. Harvey played Hightower, a washed-up funk musician teaching high school music and drama.
The series concluded with Regina mulling over a job offer from a private school in California, and although Steve didn't want her to leave Chicago because of his romantic feelings for her, he encouraged her to take the job.
“Playing Regina was such a blessing,” Wendy said. “It was great being able to do that for six seasons.”
“You become beyond friends, It becomes family,” she told the website www.cyinterview.com after the series ended. “It was very emotional. I don't want to say it's like a divorce because we are all coming out on top, but at the same time there is a sad separation that happens in watching the old episodes...It brings some wonderful memories. It was a great time in my life.”
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“The Steve Harvey Show” aired for six seasons (1996-2002), 122 episodes on The WB network. Harvey ended the series to pursue other projects. For her role as Regina, Wendy was nominated three times for Outstanding Actress by the NAACP Image Awards.
After “Steve Harvey” Regina played Miss California in the 2000 Sandra Bullock film “Miss Congeniality,” and starred in the movies “Two Can Play That Game,” “With or Without You,” “Rebound,” and “Something New.”
Regina rejoined “Steve Harvey” co-star Cedric the Entertainer in his sketch comedy show that lasted only 18 episodes in 2002.
“The dilemma that I faced coming out of [“Steve Harvey”] is that people see you as a character,” Regina said on the website www.blackfilm.com in 2003. “It was hard getting into a room and proving otherwise.
.Along with her gig in “The Game,” Regina has developed her own theater company, the Amazing Grace Conservatory, a training institute for youngsters from age 7 to 21.
Wendy credits much of her success to getting an education in the theater.
“Not only did I study theater and the craft and things like that, I also learned the lighting, the makeup, the sounds, not only for TV but for the theater,” she said. “I learned the choices you make in a character and choices you might make in an audition.”
“As a female over 35, I know I'm blessed,” Wendy said in an interview with www.brownsista.com. “God has had his hand on my career forever. I love what I do.
“I love being able to go to work and make people laugh. It's also creating good relationships. I just try to put out good enery and do good work, and God takes care of the rest.”
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“I could change my hair, change my looks, but people still had that 'Regina Grier' imbedded in their minds.”
Since 2006 Wendy has starred in the “The Game.” She plays Tasha Mack, the mother of a professional football player and a sassy, outspoken woman sports agent.
“She speaks her mind unashamedly and unapologetically,” Wendy said. “I feel like she is that alter ego. If in a free and perfect world, I could be as freely and fully expressed as I wanted to be, this is who I would be.
“I love her because she is brassy...funny...craft. She is so free and unpredictable.”
A spinoff of the series “Girlfriends,” “The Game” experienced an unusual resurrection after it was dropped by the CW network in 2010 after three seasons. Thanks to a Facebook campaign started by a devoted fan, the series was picked up by BET and the switch to a different network resulted in a huge increase in viewers..
The first episode of “The Game” was aired in January 2011 on BET, drawing 7.7 million viewers, making it the most-watched sitcom ever on cable TV. The move from CW to BET quadrupled the viewing audience.
