Khandi Alexander

Born: 04/09/1957 (66 yo)
Birth place: New York City, New York (USA)

Citizenship : USA

Occupation : Dancer, Choregrapher... , Actress

Summary

Khandi Alexander is an American dancer, choreographer, and film and television actress. She is perhaps best known for the roles of Dr. Alexx Woods on CSI: Miami and as Catherine Duke on NewsRadio. She also had a major recurring role on ER as Jackie Robbins, sister to Dr. Peter Benton. She is currently appearing in the HBO series Treme.

Biography

Khandi Alexander was born in New York City and educated at Queensborough Community College. She appeared on Broadway, starring in Chicago, Bob Fosse's Dancin, and Dreamgirls. She was a choreographer for Whitney Houston's world tour from 1988–1992, and also appeared as a dancer in Natalie Cole's video for "Pink Cadillac" in 1988.

Career

Since the early 1990s, Alexander has concentrated on film and TV, playing the character Catherine Duke on NewsRadio - a role she left after the start of season 4. She made a guest appearance in the episode after Phil Hartman's death. She also played the recurring character Jackie Robbins on ER. She is known for her starring role as Fran, a mother addicted to drugs in the Emmy Award-winning HBO miniseries The Corner. She portrayed the character Alexx Woods, a medical examiner in the forensics-related drama CSI: Miami for 6 seasons as a series regular.

She has made guest appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NYPD Blue, Third Watch, Cosby, Better off Ted and La Femme Nikita.

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, Poetic Justice, and the Tina Turner biopic What’s Love Got To Do With It, where she portrayed an Ikette.

She left the CBS hit show CSI: Miami shortly before the end of the 2007-2008 season. Her final appearance aired Monday, May 5, 2008 ("Rock and a Hard Place"). On February 2, 2009, she returned to the role of Alexx Woods for a guest appearance in the episode "Smoke Gets In Your CSI's". She later returned again as Alexx Woods for more guest appearances in the episodes "Out of Time" on September 21, 2009 and "Bad Seed" on October 19, 2009.

Khandi currently stars in the award-winning HBO television series by David Simon, Treme, where she plays a bar owner in an affected neighborhood of post-Katrina New Orleans.