Rolanda Watts
| Rolonda Watts | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
July 12, 1959 Winston-Salem, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Spelman College |
| Occupation | Actress, television host, radio host, producer |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Website | rolonda |
Rolonda Watts (born July 12, 1959) is an American actress, producer, voice over artist, novelist, motivational speaker, and television and radio talk show host. She was the host of eponymous Rolonda, an internationally syndicated talk show which aired from 1994 to 1997. Watts was the on-camera announcer for Judge Joe Brown, which ended its run in 2013. She is currently the on-camera announcer for Divorce Court.
Watts's mother, Dr. Velma Gibson Watts, was an associate dean at Wake Forest University and her father, Roland Watts, was chairman of Winston-Salem State University's Fine Arts Department. Watts attended Salem Academy in Winston-Salem, North Carolina as a teenager. She is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, where she was editor-in-chief of the school newspaper and graduated Magna Cum Laude. In 1981, she earned a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
After graduating from Columbia, Watts returned to North Carolina and began her career as a general assignment reporter at WFMY-TV in Greensboro, North Carolina. She later worked at WNBC, where she was nominated for an Emmy, and WABC-TV in New York as an anchor of a weekly political forum and reporter. In 1987, she began working as a host of Attitudes, a talk show on Lifetime Television. The next year, she took a job on the newsmagazine Inside Edition as a senior correspondent, weekend anchor and producer. King World Productions, the syndicator of Inside Edition and also The Oprah Winfrey Show, then asked her to start her own talk show. Rolonda aired for nearly four seasons from January 17, 1994 to September 1997. Watts was also supervising producer and one of the owners of the show. In a 2003 interview with Soap Opera Digest, Watts said she folded the show rather than lose her integrity. "Audiences were saying, 'Well, that was really nice of you to be so respectful, but where's Jerry [Springer]?' We had to make a tough decision, either we go that route or we find something else to do."
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