Wanda Sykes Net Worth

Wanda Sykes's Quotes

• [on Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2003) after the passage of Proposition 8, which took away the right to gay marriage in California] Here in California, the one that's important to me is Prop 8. What broke my heart, you know--I'm watching the news, and there were, you know, like, a lot of the black churches got together, and they were rallying, you know, they were FOR Prop 8; I'm like, come on--it's discrimination! I mean, discrimination is discrimination. And of all people, black people should know discrimination and you're going to vote and get discrimination in the Constitution? I mean, that's . . . I know African-Americans, they get upset. They're like, "Black and gay, that's totally different things. We had it hard." And I'm like, "Yeah, I get it. I'm black. I know. I get it". You know. But there's things that gay people have to go through that black people didn't have to go through. I never had to come out black. Never had to sit my family down and tell them about my blackness. Have a little talk with my employer, let him know about my "black lifestyle". Mom, dad, I gotta tell you something. Hope you still love me. I'm black. You know, and my mother: "Not black, Lord! Anything but black, Jesus! Anything but black! What did I do, what did I do? It was Soul Train (1971), wasn't it? I shouldn't have let you watch 'Soul Train'." "No, ma, that's just me--I mean, I just feel like I was born black". "No, you weren't born black. The bible says Adam and Eve; it doesn't say Adam and Mary J. Blige".
• [on the Ellen Degeneres show, talking about revealing that she had breast cancer and a double mastectomy] I was like I don't know, should I talk about it or what. How many things could I have? I'm black, then lesbian. I can't be the poster child for everything.
• If you feel like there's something out there that you're supposed to be doing, of you have a passion for it, then stop wishing and just do it.
• [on the upcoming 2016 US federal election] I think they should make everyone vote. Everyone should have to vote. Maybe everyone gets a Powerball ticket if you vote. I don't know. Vote and you get a scratch-off.
• Kids get in the way of the couple. It's hard to be a couple and then kids come and shatter that whole thing. You have to work hard to be a couple. If something happens in the night, we have to put our pajamas on like we're volunteer firemen.

Interesting Facts about Wanda Sykes

1. Received a Bachelor of Sciences degree in marketing from Hampton University.
2. Raised in the Maryland-Washington, DC, area.
3. Her stand-up career began at a Super Talent Showcase in Washington, DC, where she performed for the first time in front of a live audience.
4. She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated.
5. Ranked #70 in Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time, the only Black woman to make the list.
6. Worked as a procurement officer at the National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade in Laurel, Maryland from college graduation in 1986 until 1992.
7. Came out as gay on November 15, 2008, at a pro-gay marriage rally in Las Vegas hosted by the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) Center of Southern Nevada. At that rally, she also publicly announced for the first time that she has a wife, to whom she was married in California on October 25, 2008.
8. Has 2 children: daughter, Olivia Lou Sykes & son, Lucas Claude Sykes (b. April 27, 2009) with wife, Alex Niedbalski.
9. In 2009, she made history as the first African-American master of ceremonies at the White House Correspondents' dinner.
10. In September 2011, Sykes revealed that earlier in the year, she had gone in for breast reduction surgery and discovered that she had very early-stage breast cancer. Because of a history of breast cancer in her family, she decided to have a bilateral mastectomy (both breasts removed).
11. Friends with Steve Harvey.
12. Grew up in a military family.