Thea Vidale is an American stand-up comedian and actress.

She began her career doing stand-up comedy

Stand-up comedy

Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...

 in comic clubs in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Los Angeles. She appeared in the cable comedy special "Rodney Dangerfield: Opening Night at Rodney's Place" HBO(1989) On the same special were such notables as Tim Allen

Tim Allen

Tim Allen is an American comedian, actor, voice-over artist, and entertainer, known for his role in the sitcom Home Improvement...

, Jeff Foxworthy

Jeff Foxworthy

Jeffrey Marshall "Jeff" Foxworthy is an American comedian, television and radio personality and author. He is a member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, a comedy troupe which also comprises Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall and Ron White. Known for his "you might be a redneck" one-liners, Foxworthy...

 & Sam Kinison

Sam Kinison

Samuel Burl "Sam" Kinison was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Kinison was known for his intense, harsh and politically incorrect genre humor...

. As an actress, she has made numerous guest appearances on sitcoms, including Ellen

Ellen (TV series)

Ellen is a U.S. television sitcom that ran on the ABC network from March 29, 1994 to July 22, 1998, producing 109 episodes.The theme song, "So Called Friend" is by Scottish band Texas...

, The Wayans Bros.

The Wayans Bros.

The Wayans Bros. is a situation comedy that aired from 1995 to 1999 on The WB. The series starred real-life brothers Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans. Both brothers were already well-known from the sketch comedy show In Living Color...

, The Drew Carey Show

The Drew Carey Show

The Drew Carey Show is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from 1995 to 2004. The show was set in Cleveland, Ohio, and revolved around the retail office and home life of "everyman" Drew Carey, a fictionalized version of the actor....

, and My Wife and Kids

My Wife and Kids

My Wife and Kids is an American television family sitcom that ran on ABC from March 28, 2001 until May 17, 2005. Produced by Touchstone Television , it starred Damon Wayans and Tisha Campbell-Martin, and centers on the character of Michael Kyle, a loving husband and modern-day patriarch who rules...

. She may be best known for her portrayal of "Thea" on the short-lived sitcom Thea

Thea (TV series)

Thea is an American sitcom that premiered September 3, 1993 on ABC, and last aired on February 14, 1994, for a total of 19 episodes. Starring comedienne Thea Vidale, the series marked the first time an African American female comedienne was the star of a series named after her.-Synopsis:Thea Vidale...

for which she was nominated for a People's Choice Award as Favorite Female in a New Series. She has also starred in the Master P

Master P

Percy Robert Miller , better known by his stage name Master P or his business name P. Miller, is an American rapper, actor, entrepreneur, investor, and producer. He is the founder of the popular label No Limit Records, which went bankrupt and was relaunched as New No Limit Records through Koch...

 comedy Repos.

In 1999, promoted by Scott Sherman of Atlantic Entertainment Group, Vidale appeared at the Philadelphia GLBT Pride Fest, her first GLBT event, with comic Etta May

Etta May

Etta May is an American comedian. She was the winner of the American Comedy Awards Stand-Up Comic of the Year, and has appeared on MTV, Oprah, Comic Strip Live, and as a guest commentator on CBS Sunday Morning....

. Both were honored by the city's mayor, who officially named the day simultaneously "Thea Vidale Day" & "Etta May Day".

World Wrestling Entertainment career

Thea Vidale made her début on World Wrestling Entertainment

World Wrestling Entertainment

World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...

 (WWE) in January 2006. She appeared as the mother to wrestler Shelton Benjamin

Shelton Benjamin

Shelton James Benjamin is an American professional wrestler and former amateur wrestler best known for his tenure in World Wrestling Entertainment. Benjamin has an amateur wrestling background, including wrestling in high school and at the University of Minnesota. In addition, Benjamin has acted...

, who had been going through difficulties in the preceding weeks. Her first appearance was on the January 2 episode of Raw

WWE RAW

WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States...

, where she surprised Benjamin by showing up and yelled at him that he wasn't acting the way Benjamins act. Over the next several weeks, "Momma Benjamin", as she came to be known, was involved in several backstage skits resulting in her challenging wrestlers to matches in Shelton's behalf. Unlike in his streak before her arrival, however, Shelton won the majority of these matches.

On the February 6, episode of RAW Momma Benjamin attempted to interfere in Shelton's match with the Big Show

Paul Wight

Paul Donald Wight, Jr. , better known by his ring name, Big Show, is an American professional wrestler and actor, currently signed to WWE on its Raw brand....

, only to have the Big Show turn to her and scream in her face. After he turned back to finish the match (which he won), Momma Benjamin faint

Faint

Faint may refer to:* Syncope , a medical term for fainting* Faint , a song by Linkin Park* Feint, a maneuver designed to distract or mislead* Feint , a song by Epica* The Faint, a dance-punk/rock band....

ed to the ground, prompting EMTs

Emergency medical technician

Emergency Medical Technician or Ambulance Technician are terms used in some countries to denote a healthcare provider of emergency medical services...

 to rush to her side and wheel her backstage. The official WWE website later announced that she was resting at home after suffering from a heart arrhythmia, which was what caused her to pass out. Momma Benjamin returned to Raw the next week, but with an oxygen tank attached to her wheelchair that started being used as a weapon, especially on the February 20 episode when she led Shelton to winning the WWE Intercontinental Championship

WWE Intercontinental Championship

The WWE Intercontinental Championship is a professional wrestling championship in WWE. It is the original secondary title of the promotion. Currently, it is the secondary championship exclusive to the SmackDown brand...

, in the process turning them both heel. Momma Benjamin was mentioned for the final time on WWE television on March 13, with Shelton announcing to the crowd that she was having heart surgery, and had no plans to return to WWE.

Back on TV

In 2007 Thea Vidale made a guest appearance on the television series Ugly Betty

Ugly Betty

Ugly Betty is an American comedy-drama television series developed by Silvio Horta, which premiered on ABC on September 28, 2006, and ended on April 14, 2010. The series revolves around the character Betty Suarez and is based on Fernando Gaitán's Colombian telenovela soap opera Yo soy Betty, la fea...

playing a hairdresser in the episode "Queens for a Day". That same year, she played the part of Helen's grandmother on the Drake & Josh

Drake & Josh

Drake & Josh is an American sitcom that premiered on the Nickelodeon television network on January 11, 2004, which follows the lives of two stepbrothers. It stars Drake Bell and Josh Peck as stepbrothers Drake Parker and Josh Nichols, respectively. Both actors had played roles in The Amanda Show,...

 episode "Really Big Shrimp".

Later in 2007 she tried out for the reality television show Last Comic Standing, making it to the second round.

Vidale was announced as co-host for the 2009 AVN Awards

AVN Awards

The AVN Awards are movie awards sponsored and presented by the American adult video industry trade magazine AVN to honor exceptional performance in various aspects of the creation and marketing of American pornographic movies. They are called the "Oscars of porn"...

, with Belladonna and Jenna Haze, on Saturday, January 10 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

She has also provided the voice of Mammy Two Shoes in redubbed versions of Tom and Jerry

Tom and Jerry

Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...

, replacing Lillian Randolph

Lillian Randolph

Lillian Randolph was an American actress and singer, a veteran of radio, film, and television. An African American, she worked in entertainment from the 1930s well into the 1970s, appearing in hundreds of radio shows, motion pictures, short subjects, and television shows.-Early years:Born...

.

In 2009, Vidale was part of the "Hot Tamales Live! presented by Kiki Melendez" comedy tour. The show was also filmed for Showtime in which Vidale was listed in the credits as Thea Vidal - without the 'e' at the end of her last name. This difference in her last name has also been reported in the news media.

Radio

On March 26, 2009, Vidale was a guest on The Howard Stern Show on Sirius XM channel Howard 100, where she revealed that she has been with both men and women sexually due to being in a highly abusive relationship with her kids' father. She appeared again on October 21, 2010, when she announced she had decided to have gastric bypass surgery

Gastric bypass surgery

Gastric bypass procedures are any of a group of similar operations that first divides the stomach into a small upper pouch and a much larger lower "remnant" pouch and then re-arranges the small intestine to allow both pouches to stay connected to it. Surgeons have developed several different ways...

 because she had developed complications resulting from type 2 diabetes. She stated, "I have four children. This is not about vanity...I want it to be like a rebirth. A new me. A healthier me."

External links