Natalie Desselle Reid

Actress Natalie Desselle Reid hailed from Alexandria, Louisiana. She graduated from Peabody Magnet High School and attended Grambling State University for 2 1/2 years. The acting bug bit her after a starring role in Grambling's production of "Bubbling Brown Sugar." After several productions as a thespian, she decided to move to Los Angeles and test the waters. Realizing Hollywood was not aware of her "arrival" she became a receptionist, a soul food waitress and lastly a tank mechanic at McDonnell Douglas. A devotee to the anomalous careers of Roseanne, Oprah and Whoopi she began to chart her course. Her break came when Robi Reed cast her in F. Gary Gray's "Set It Off" which led to a guest starring role on television's "Family Matters". After her initial foray into Hollywood, she found herself "down and out" in Inglewood, California and then the "call" came. The role that established her as a comedic thespian aka "the funny chick" in Robert Townsend's" B.A.P.S", starring opposite the luminous Halle Berry. The films "How to be a Player", "Cinderella" and televisions "Built to Last" and "For Your Love" followed. In the 2000s, she played Janie Egins on the television show "Eve" for three seasons, and had one of her last film roles in Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family (2011). Her most cherished production was her family, which included her husband Lenny Reid and their three children Sereno, Summer, and Sasha.