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Marla Gibbs

Biography

Marla Gibbs

Hailing from Chicago, Illinois, five-time Emmy-nominated actress Marla Gibbs wears many hats: mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, actor, entrepreneur, philanthropist and icon. She starred as the witty, wisecracking maid Florence for eleven seasons on the CBS hit comedy, "The Jeffersons," and as the loving matriarch Mary on the NBC hit series, "227," where she made history as the executive producer.

At 93 years young, she remains active, doing cameos in television and film projects, including "This Is Us," "NCIS," "Days of Our Lives, UnPrisoned," and "Will Trent."

An eight-time NAACP Image Award winner, Marla continues to receive numerous prestigious honors, including Essence Magazine’s Woman of the Year, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a Black Filmmaker’s Foundation Award, and many more.

Marla Gibbs

Books by Marla Gibbs

It's Never Too Late: A Memoir
by Marla Gibbs - Memoir, Nonfiction

Marla Gibbs has been a Hollywood icon for generations of fans. Now, at 93, she chronicles her climb from a difficult youth in which she yearned for safety and love, to the high-stakes world of Hollywood where she became a confident powerbroker learning to work behind the scenes for fair pay, access, and more creative control for herself and her colleagues. Told in her forthright voice, IT'S NEVER TOO LATE illuminates Gibbs' daring move to Los Angeles to rebuild her life after an abusive marriage, how she became an actor, and how she eventually learned to balance acting with show running. Though the authority she wielded behind the scenes created deep tensions on and off the set, her hard-luck young life had prepared her to succeed even as her tenacity was put to the test. Her experiences laid the groundwork for powerbrokers like Shonda Rhimes and Issa Rae.