Rain Pryor

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Rain Pryor (born July 16, 1969 in Los Angeles, California) is an American actress and comedian, and the daughter of African American comedian Richard Pryor, and his second wife, Shelley Bonis.

Pryor, who is black and Jewish, has joked that while growing she felt "proud, but guilty about it." [1]

1 Career
2 Family
3 Miscellaneous
4 External links

[edit] Career

Her first major role, and the one in which she was probably seen by the largest audience, was as "T.J." on the sitcom Head of the Class from 1988 to 1991.

In 2004 and 2005 she toured in a one-woman show about growing up black and Jewish, called "Fried Chicken and Latkes."

[edit] Family

Her blond, Brooklyn-born Jewish mother Shelly Bonis (former hippie and civil rights advocate) "was a Jewish go-go dancer" who believed herself to be an African American princess. [2][3]

Her maternal grandfather, Herbert Bonis, was Danny Kaye's manager for 35 years.

[edit] Miscellaneous

Having overcome her own struggles with drug abuse, she has since acted as an addiction counselor and given talks on drugs and alcohol at high schools.

She tried to commit suicide twice as a child. After the second attempt, at 16, her father gave her a sports car and urged her to drive it home, even though she had no driver’s license

During this period, she met and married Kevin Kindlin.

Her father's multiple sclerosis affliction led her to become an activist promoting research of the disease.

In her 2006 book: 'Jokes My Father Never Taught Me,' Pryor discusses what it was like for her to grow up black and Jewish. Her mother's family advised Rain’s mother to put Rain up for adoption, rather than deal with bringing up a child "in a world that wasn’t ready for biracial children."

Rain was rejected by the African Americans and the Jewish Americans in her life. Growing up as a biracial half-Jewish child was a challenge that she only recently resolved by performing, using her identity as both a black and a Jew to create a unique voice in 'Fried Chicken and Latkes.'[4]