Khandi Alexander was born on September 4, 1957 in New York City. A graduate of Queenborough Community College, she began her work as a dancer, appearing in the Broadway productions for plays such as Chicago, Dancin’ and Dreamgirls. She also worked as a choreographer, doing dance routines for Whitney Houston’s world tour, which lasted from 1988 to 1992.
During the time, she has made occasional appearances on television and film, but only in the 1990s did she focus exclusively on acting. After roles in films such as Joshua Tree, What’s Love Got to Do with It and Sugar Hill, she snagged a major role in the acclaimed NBC comedy NewsRadio. She played the role of Catherine Duke, a news anchor at a news radio station in New York, and bitter rival with her co-anchor Bill McNeal (Phil Hartman) partly because of an affair that they had earlier. She left the show in the fourth season, but returned as a guest in the fifth season premiere to pay tribute to Hartman, who was killed.
Alexander’s other notable early television roles include a recurring role in ER, where she played Jackie Robbins, the sister to surgeon Peter Benton (Eriq La Salle), and as Francine Boyd, the matriarch of the family who deals with drug addiction, in the HBO miniseries The Corner. She has also made appearances in films such as There’s Something About Mary, Emmett’s Mark and Dark Blue.
Her latest major television role came in 2002, when she joined the cast of CSI: Miami. She plays the role of Alexx Woods, a medical examiner who has a tendency to talk to the corpses she examines in a somewhat motherly manner. She left the show at the end of the sixth season, when her character was forced to leave the Miami-Dade crime lab after her son was linked to a murder, and she realized that it’s time for her to spend more time with her family.
Since the early '90s, Alexander has concentrated on film and TV, playing the character Catherine Duke on NewsRadio and the recurring character Jackie Robbins on ER. She is well known for her starring role as a mother addicted to drugs named Fran in The Corner. She has made guest appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NYPD Blue, La Femme Nikita. She used to portray the character Alexx Woods, a medical examiner in the forensics-related drama CSI: Miami.
Khandi starred in the movie CB4 with Chris Rock and Charlie Murphy. Other film credits include Dark Blue, Sugar Hill, Menace II Society, House Party 3, There's Something About Mary, Rain, and Poetic Justice.
Khandi finished the 2007-2008 season of CBS Hit Show CSI: Miami, but is not returning the following season. Her final appearance aired Monday, May 5, 2008.
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