Whoopi Goldberg to Appear at the Van Wezel Today

In 2002, Whoopi Goldberg became one of a very elite group of artists who have won the Grammy ("Whoopi Goldberg," 1985), the Academy Award ("Ghost," 1991), the Golden Globe ("The Color Purple," 1985 and "Ghost," 1991), the Emmy (as host of AMC's "Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel," 2002) and a Tony (Producer of "Thoroughly Modern Millie," 2002).

Born and raised in New York City, Whoopi worked in theatre and improvisation in San Diego and the Bay Area, where she performed with the Blake Street Hawkeyes theatre troupe. It was there that she created the characters which became The Spook Show and evolved into her hit Broadway show, Grammy Award-winning album and the HBO special that helped launch her career. Whoopi has also appeared in such films as Jumpin' Jack Flash, Clara's Heart, The Long Walk Home, Soapdish, The Player, Sarafina!, Sister Act, Made in America, Corrina, Corrina, Boys on the Side, Eddie, The Associate and Ghosts of Mississippi, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Girl, Interrupted, Kingdom Come and Rat Race. She has voiced characters in such animated features asThe Lion King, Racing Stripes, Doogal, and Everyone's Hero. On television, Whoopi appeared for five seasons on Star Trek: The Next Generation, co-starred with Jean Stapleton in Bagdad Caféand hosted her own syndicated late-night talk show. She appeared in the Emmy-nominated HBO drama, In the Gloaming, as well as The Wonderful World of Disney's Rogers & Hammerstein's Cinderella and A Knight in Camelot and appeared in the mini-series Alice in Wonderland and The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns. She starred in the NBC sitcom, Whoopi, which she executive produced, and co-starred in the television movies, It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie and Showtime's Good Fences, which she co-produced with co-star Danny Glover. She produced and appeared on Nick Jr's Whoopi's Littleburg and currently appears as moderator on ABC's long-running talk show The View. 

As she has in every other facet of her career, Whoopi has made her mark as a producer-with television and Broadway credits too numerous to list-one of her most recent endeavors being Broadway's Sister Act. The musical has singing nuns, gangsters, disco-inspired music and opened with leading ladies like Patina Miller and Victoria Clark.