Whoopi Goldberg Biography

"It's a Cinderella dream come true," Whoopi Goldberg said about her life. "It's a gas, it's amazing. Everyone should have this luck. This is the last thing I expected to happen."

Whoopi Goldberg (Birth name: Caryn Elaine Johnson) has come a long way from the job she once had applying makeup on corpses in a mortuary. Appearing on stage since she was eight years old, Goldberg attended New York City's (where she was born) High School for the Performing Arts.

In 1974, she made the move to the West Coast where she continued to perform on stage, finally striking it big with her one-woman act called "Spook Show." Her stage show featuring her comedic talents to great effect and was the talk of Broadway when it played New York, leading to her being cast in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple, for which she received a Golden Globe award and her first Oscar nomination.

She later scored a huge hit—as well as another Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress—for Ghost. And her star turn in Sister Act led to a sequel for which she was paid a reported $8 million. In 1994, she became the first woman to host the Academy Awards, and she has served as host several times since then. From 1998 to 2002, she not only produced but was a regular as the center square celebrity on the game show Hollywood Squares, earning four Daytime Emmy nominations for "Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show." In 2001 Goldberg was honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the following year, she won a Daytime Emmy as the host of the TV special Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel. As one of the producers of the TV series Strong Medicine, in 2003 Goldberg and her fellow producers won a Gracie Allen Award.

On September 9, 2003, Whoopi's sitcom Whoopi debuted on NBC and though it received good reviews, it only lasted a season. Goldberg also does a lot of voiceover work and in 2007, joined the talk show The View as a co-host.

She continues to act in motion pictures when she has time off from the show, including playing the role of Alice/White in For Colored Girls (2010)..

Whoopi has continued to maintain a vibrant presence in both film and television. She returned to the big screen in Nobody’s Fool (2018) and later delivered a powerful performance as Alma Carthan in the critically acclaimed civil rights drama Till (2022), which she also produced. On television, she portrayed the wise and mystical Mother Abagail in the 2020 adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand and reprised her beloved role as Guinan in Star Trek: Picard (2022). She also joined the cast of the Prime Video comedy series Harlem as Dr. Elise Pruitt, while continuing her long-running role as co-host on The View.

Looking ahead, she’s set to return as Deloris Van Cartier in the highly anticipated Sister Act 3. Through all of this, Whoopi has remained an enduring force in entertainment, celebrated for her versatility, candor, and lasting cultural impact.

Married and divorced three times, Whoopi has a daughter, Alex, with her first husband, Alvin Martin.

Filmography:

Godfather of Harlem (2021-2025)
Harlem (2021-2025)
Babes (2024)
Outlaw Posse (2024)
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (2024)
Ezra (2023/24)
Till (2022)
Luck (2022)
Butterfly in the Sky (2022)
Is That Black Enough for You?!? (2022)
Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It (2021)
Nobody’s Fool (2018)
Furlough (2018)
A Very Sordid Wedding (2017)
9/11 (2017)
Yamasong: March of the Hollows (2017)
The Gospel According to André (2017)
Shot (2017)
Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House (2017)
Big Stone Gap (2015)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
A Little Bit of Heaven (2011)
The Muppets (2011)
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey (2011)
Toy Story 3 (2010)
For Colored Girls (2010)
Everyone’s Hero (2006)
The Aristocrats (2005)
Pauly Shore Is Dead (2004)
Rat Race (2001)
Girl, Interrupted (1999)
How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998)
Ghosts of Mississippi (1996)
The Associate (1996)
Eddie (1996)
Boys on the Side (1995)
Moonlight and Valentino (1995)
The Lion King (1994)
The Little Rascals (1994)
Corrina, Corrina (1994)
Sarafina! (1992)
The Player (1992)
Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993)
Sister Act (1992)
Soapdish (1991)
Ghost (1990)
The Long Walk Home (1990)
Clara’s Heart (1988)
The Telephone (1988)
Burglar (1987)
Fatal Beauty (1987)
Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986)
The Color Purple (1985)
Citizen: I'm Not Losing My Mind, I'm Giving It Away (1982)