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Mariann Aalda shows how to stand up to ageism in TEDx talk.
Mariann Aalda (born May 7, 1948) is an American television, stage, film actress, performance artist, and stand-up comic.
Career
Aalda is best known for her work in television as one of the first African-American daytime soap opera heroines, playing DiDi Bannister-Stoner on ABC's The Edge of Night[1] from 1981 until the show's cancellation in 1984. For many years before that she was a writer-performer with the sketch comedy troupe Off Center Theatre in New York, and toured with the Boston-based improv group, The Proposition, along with notable animation voice actor and director, Charlie Adler.[2] Later, she appeared on the CBS show Guiding Light. She also had regular roles on the CBS sitcom The Royal Family, as the daughter of Redd Foxx and Della Reese,[3] and the HBO series 1st & Ten, as the wife of O. J. Simpson's character.
Aalda also achieved notoriety recurring on the CBS sitcom Designing Women, as Anthony's yuppie-from-hell girlfriend, Lita Ford, and on the NBC soap opera Sunset Beach as the tragically disfigured Lena Hart. She co-hosted the lifestyle show Designs for Living on the USA Network and was a reporter for the magazine show NOW! on WNBC in New York. Her numerous guest-star roles are mostly sitcoms.
Aalda has also appeared in movies, co-starring in the urban cult film Class Act as rapper Kid's clueless mom, and as Coach Harrison in Nobody's Perfect. She was a featured player in Beaches and Pretty Woman, directed by Garry Marshall and The Wiz, directed by Sidney Lumet.
She is a leader in the positive aging movement, with a TEDx Talk[4] and AARP recognition as an "Age Disruptor".[5] She is a prolific podcast guest on the topic of shameless aging. She is resident Age Anarchist for Women of Color Unite (WOCU), a 5000-plus member advocacy group for women of color working both above and below the line in the entertainment industry. She also delivers her message on positive aging as a standup comedian and with her solo "existential comedy" show, Getting Old Is a Bitch...But I'm Gonna Wrestle That Bitch to the Ground!,[6] which broke a 30-year box office record at the 2019 National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
