Erika Alexander is using Oscar night to honor her mom.
At the 2024 Oscars on Sunday, March 10, American fiction star took a moment to thank the person who made her career possible: her mother, Sammie Alexander.
Speaking with Diversity on the red carpet at the Oscars, Alexander, 54, looked into the camera to address her mom directly. “Hi mom, it’s Erika. Thank you,” she began crying. “Thank you for the sacrifice, for putting me on an acting course, where they found me in a Merchant Ivory film, there 40 years ago. And spending the last money on the children’s education.”
“And I want to say this is your victory and I’m walking this space because of you,” said Alexander, who has five siblings. “And we’re not done yet.”
She added, “Thank you, mom, I love you,” and blew her mom a kiss.
Erika Alexander on the red carpet of the Oscars 2024.
Getty Images
Alexander’s mother enrolled the star in an acting course at the age of 14, where she was discovered by independent film company Merchant Ivory. Some of Alexander’s earliest roles include the 1986 film My little girl and an ABC after school special.
But her biggest role was in the sitcom from 1993 Living single. Alexander played Maxine Shaw in an ensemble cast that also included Queen Latifah, Kim Coles and Kim Fields. The beloved sitcom premiered back in 1993, when Alexander was 24 years old, and ran for five seasons.
“I really identify with that show,” she told PEOPLE in January. “Especially as soon as I put those braids on.” The star teased that there was “a little talk” about restarting the series.
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The cast of ‘Living Single’. From left: Queen Latifah, Kim Fields, Erika Alexander and Kim Coles.
IN American fiction, Alexander stars as Coraline, a lawyer who has a romance with Jeffrey Wright’s Monk. The film was nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture. Thinking about American fictionThe success of the awards season, she told PEOPLE, “I’ve been in the business for 40 years, and yet this is the first time I’ve been mentioned in articles like this.”
“What I try to do is just not be afraid of it and really just breathe and embrace it,” she said of her take on awards season. “It’s really wonderful for people to have you in their thoughts in a way that’s in that category.”
She added about the film’s journey: “Every moment counts. I accept it and I am present in this moment as well.”
The American Fiction cast includes Wright, Sterling K. Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross and Leslie Uggams, and Alexander was especially thrilled to be working with such a talented cast. “Work long hours to be with people you admire, but who also admire you, [and] know what you’re capable of,” Alexander told PEOPLE. “You come as a bunch of soloists, but you know how to be an ensemble. And that right there, that’s a gift.”
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Source: HIS Education