Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon

Garcelle Beauvais was born in St. Marc, Haiti to father Axel Beauvais, an attorney, and mother, Marie Claire. After her parents' divorce, Marie Claire moved seven-year-old Garcelle and her six siblings stateside, to the chilly climes of Massachusetts. Initially suffering from massive culture shock, Beauvais, who did not speak a word of English, began to pick up the language from shows like "Sesame Street" (PBS/HBO, 1969-), while her mother attended nursing school in an effort to provide for her children. After several years at New England boarding schools, she and the family moved to Miami, FL, but within a year, the 17-year-old Beauvais traveled to New York City in order to pursue a modeling career. With her perfect blend of exoticism and classic beauty, it would not be long before she signed with the prestigious Ford Modeling Agency and began appearing in print campaigns for the likes of Avon and Mary Kay, on the runway for Calvin Klein, and on the covers of magazines like Ebony and Essence. Even before leaving Miami, Beauvais had begun to dabble in acting, with the tiniest of early appearances in the Florida-based, Michael Mann productions, "Miami Vice" (NBC, 1984-1990) and "Manhunter" (1986). Other early TV and film work included small turns in "The Cosby Show" (NBC, 1984-1992) and the Eddie Murphy comedy "Coming to America" (1988). Before long, Beauvais made the full-time commitment to acting and the requisite move to Los Angeles. Then, in a case of fact being almost as strange as fiction, the fledgling thespian arranged to meet Aaron Spelling one day after having a dream in which she had a lengthy conversation with the legendary TV producer. Within in weeks of handing him her portfolio and résumé, Beauvais had been cast as one of the leads on the short-lived primetime soap "Models, Inc." (Fox, 1994-95). After the series was cancelled, she studied at The Groundlings, the famed L.A.-based improvisation troupe, where she honed her comedic skills. Following a year of guest appearances on various shows, Beauvais landed another leading role on "The Jamie Foxx Show" (The WB, 1996-2001) opposite the future Oscar-winning headliner. Cast as Francesca 'Fancy' Monroe, she was the gorgeous co-worker who drove Foxx to distraction for all five seasons of the successful sitcom. Smart and sassy, Beauvais' character held her own against the talented comedian, endearing her to audiences and proving that her work with the Groundlings had been time well spent.Beauvais' increased exposure and growing popularity allowed her to parlay the work on "Jamie Foxx" into supporting roles in major feature films, including a turn alongside Will Smith in the big-budget adaptation of "Wild Wild West" (1999). Despite there being only so many hours in a day, the ambitious actress simultaneously took on a recurring role as an educator in the extremely short-lived teen dramedy series "Opposite Sex" (Fox, 2000). With her work on "Jamie Foxx" coming to a close, Beauvais racked up another movie credit in the Eddie Griffin-Orlando Jones action-comedy "Double Take" (2001). From there, she joined the long-running police procedural drama "NYPD Blue" (ABC, 1993-2005) in 2001. As Assistant District Attorney Valerie Haywood, Beauvais' character became romantically entangled with the intense and dedicated Detective Baldwin Jones (Henry Simmons) until she left the series at the end of its penultimate season in 2004. Just as before, her regular TV work did not prevent Beauvais from picking up additional film work in features such as the comedy-thriller "Bad Company" (2002) opposite Chris Rock, and the sequel to the hit urban comedy, "Barbershop 2: Back in Business" (2004). Beauvais made an albeit less successful attempt at joining the cast of yet another show with "Eyes" (ABC, 2005), a barely-seen crime series starring Tim Daly as the head of a high-tech investigations firm. Sporadic TV guest spots followed, as well as additional supporting roles in films like the critically panned box office bomb "I Know Who Killed Me" (2007), starring Lindsay Lohan as twins separated a birth. She also turned in a brief performance as Marley Shelton's concerned co-worker in the ensemble drama "Women in Trouble" (2009), co-starring Carla Gugino and Emmanuelle Chriqui. Beauvais' normally quiet personal life garnered some tabloid ink in April of 2010 when, after discovering that her husband of nearly nine years - Creative Artists Agency agent Mike Nilon - had been having an ongoing extramarital affair, she promptly e-mailed the revelation to his entire office. She filed for divorce shortly thereafter, and eventually gained shared custody of their twin sons, Jax and Jaid. Beauvais gave regular series work another chance when she signed on to play Hanna Linden, a beautiful and manipulative attorney working alongside Breckin Meyer and Mark-Paul Gosselaar, the titular stars of the legal comedy-drama "Franklin & Bash" (TNT, 2011-14).