Erika Rose Alexander (born November 19, 1969) is an American actress, writer, producer, entrepreneur and activist who played the roles of Pam Tucker on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show from 1990 to 1992, and Maxine Shaw on the Fox sitcom Living Single from 1993 to 1998. She has won numerous awards for her work on Living Single, including two NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series. Her film credits include The Long Walk Home (1990), 30 Years to Life (2001), Déjà Vu (2006), Get Out (2017), American Refugee (2021), Earth Mama (2023) and American Fiction (2023), for which she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Performance.
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Early life
Alexander was born on November 19, 1969, in Winslow, Arizona, and raised in Flagstaff, Arizona, until age eleven, when she and her family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is one of six children born to Robert and Sammie Alexander, a schoolteacher and a children's book author, respectively. She graduated from Philadelphia High School for Girls.
Acting career
Alexander was discovered at 14 by independent film company Merchant Ivory when she was attending the fifth week of a six-week summer acting class at the New Freedom Theatre. Her first major film role was that of Joan in 1986's My Little Girl. In 1989, she played Madri/Hidimbaa in Peter Brook's nine-hour epic play adaptation of The Mahabharata. She was also cast in Bill Gunn's The Forbidden City, the last play directed by Public Theater impresario Joseph Papp. The play also starred Gloria Foster, Frankie Faison and Akili Prince.
In 1990, Alexander starred opposite Whoopi Goldberg in the civil rights epic drama film The Long Walk Home. She was then cast as Pam Tucker on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show, starring on the series from 1990 until the show's finale in 1992. That same year, Alexander starred in the ABC comedy-drama series Going to Extremes, which centered on a group of American students at a medical school on a fictitious Caribbean island named Jantique. The series was canceled after one season in early 1993.
Later in 1993, Alexander began starring as attorney Maxine Shaw in the Fox sitcom Living Single, a role she played for five years until 1998. For this role, Alexander won two NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series in 1996 and 1998. In 1996, she also made a cameo appearance in Toni Braxton's music video for her song "You're Makin' Me High".
In 1998, Alexander starred as "Young Flora", acting along with Cicely Tyson and her former Living Single co-star Queen Latifah, in the CBS miniseries Mama Flora's Family, based on a novel by Alex Haley. She also appeared in the 1998 drama film 54. In 2001, Alexander starred in the comedy film 30 Years to Life, receiving a Black Reel Award for Best Independent Actress for her performance.
In 2002, Alexander played probation officer Dee Mulhern in the Showtime drama series Street Time, which ran for two seasons. She had recurring roles in Judging Amy, In Plain Sight, Low Winter Sun and Let's Stay Together. Alexander also guest-starred on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Half & Half,7th Heaven (TV series), ER, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Criminal Minds, House, Suits and Grey's Anatomy. Additionally, she appeared in a number of films during the 2000s and 2010s. In 2006, Alexander played the role of Shanti, a technical science engineer in the science fiction action film Deja Vu opposite Denzel Washington. She later starred opposite Benjamin Bratt and Jeremy Ray Valdez in the 2009 drama film La Mission.
Writing and publishing
In 2012, Alexander co-created and co-wrote a science-fiction graphic novel, Concrete Park, with then-husband Tony Puryear. In 2018, she penned season eleven of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic Giles with Buffy creator Joss Whedon. In 2023, she created and co-wrote the Dupont Columbia Award-winning Audible true-crime series Finding Tamika.
Alexander is a co-founder (with Ben Arnon) of Color Farm Media, an entertainment, innovation, and social impact company; in 2020, they released John Lewis: Good Trouble, a documentary focusing on civil rights leader John Lewis.
Political activity
Alexander actively campaigned for Hillary Clinton and toured college campuses with Chelsea Clinton during the 2008 Democratic Party primary.
Personal life
From 1997 to 2017, Alexander was married to artist and screenwriter Tony Puryear.
