With over 40 years in the entertainment industry, Abbott Elementary star Sheryl Lee Ralph has a trove of both trials and triumphs to her credit. The Tony Award-nominated multi-hyphenate takes Ashley back to the beginning of her career and describes who she was before landing her breakthrough role as Deena Jones in the seminal Broadway musical Dreamgirls. Sheryl underscores key lessons she learned from her parents and mentors, including the power to determine which doors to leave closed. The original Dreamgirl also unpacks the most difficult season of her life: navigating her divorce as a single mother, leaving the hit tv show Moesha and losing herself along the way. Sheryl recalls the encounter that helped her “rise to the occasion of her own life,” and how, just like her character Deena, she owned her inner diva.
