Wendy Williams Hunter ( Wendy Joan Williams; born July 18, 1964) is an American broadcaster, media personality, and writer. From 2008 to 2022, she hosted the nationally syndicated television talk show The Wendy Williams Show. Prior to television, Williams was a radio DJ and host and quickly became known in New York as a shock jockette. She gained notoriety for her on-air spats with celebrities and was the subject of the 2006 VH1 reality television series The Wendy Williams Experience, which broadcast events surrounding her radio show. Williams' other endeavors include authoring several books, appearances in various films and television shows, touring her comedy show, and her own product lines, including a fashion line, a jewelry collection and a wig line. Williams was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2009. On her 50th birthday, the council of Asbury Park, New Jersey, renamed the street on which she grew up Wendy Williams Way. Early life and education Wendy Joan Williams was born on July 18, 1964, in Asbury Park, New Jersey. She is the second of three children born to Shirley () and Thomas Dwayne Williams. The couple had a combined three master's degrees; Shirley was a special education teacher while Thomas was a teacher and school principal who in 1969 became the first black school administrator in Red Bank, New Jersey. Following 1970 race riots in Asbury Park, the family moved to the predominantly white, upper middle class suburb of Wayside in Ocean Township, New Jersey. They attended a Baptist church and visited the African American vacation town of Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts, each summer. As a child, doctors recommended Williams be medicated to control her hyperactivity. She suffered from poor body image due to the diet her parents put her on after gaining weight in elementary school. Williams was a Brownie in the Girl Scouts and volunteered as a candy striper. Her parents believed she would become a nurse. Williams graduated from Ocean Township High School in 1982 among four black students, ranking 360th in the class of 363. Her academic performance opposed that of older sister Wanda who received a university scholarship at the age of 16. As she was able to use "white" diction instead of African-American Vernacular English, Williams's white classmates considered her one of their own and freely used the word nigger around her. She did not get along with the other black