Judyann Elder
Actor · Born January 1, 1948 (78) · Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Judyann Elder graduated from Emerson College in Boston as the first recipient of the Carol Burnett Award in the Performing Arts. She began her professional career in New York off-Broadway as a founding member and resident actor with the Tony Award-winning Negro Ensemble Company. She originated roles in the premiere productions of The Song of the Lusitanian Bogey; Daddy Goodness; Kongi's Harvest; God is a Guess What; and Ceremonies in Dark Old Men and toured with the company to London and Rome. She later made her Broadway debut at the Ambassador Theatre as Coretta King opposite Billy Dee Williams in I Have a Dream. She returns to regional stages as frequently as possible in such plays as The Heliotrope Bouquet, An American Daughter, The Old Settler, The Story, and Fences. A television veteran with innumerable credits, her favorites include her stint on Murphy Brown as Candice Bergen's obstetrician; her recurring role as Gina's mother on the hit series Martin; her series regular as Harriet Winslow for the final season of Family Matters; and her guest turn as Terri Hatcher's psychiatrist on Desperate Housewives. A breast cancer survivor and former legislative ambassador for the American Cancer Society, her dramatic role as a woman confronted with breast cancer on the show ER remains her most personally enduring. Her feature films include, among others, A Woman Called Moses with Cecily Tyson, Forget Paris opposite Billy Crystal, and Seven Pounds opposite Will Smith. For radio, she most recently portrayed Lena Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun for LA TheatreWorks national radio series which received a 2012 Audie Award. Ms. Elder's work as an actor led to her foray into directing. Among her directorial credits: The Book of the Crazy African (Skylight Theatre); The Meeting (Inner City Cultural Center, LA and New Federal Theatre, NY); Ceremonies in Dark Old Men (Beverly Canon Theatre); The Member of the Wedding (LA Theatre Works); How's Your Love Life? and A Private Act (Robey Theatre Company). Her direction of Ceremonies in Dark Old Men at the Skirball Cultural Center for LA TheatreWorks radio series was broadcast nationally in February of 2010. She is an alumna of the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women where she produced and directed the short film, Behind God's Back, based on an Alice Walker story and starring Beau Bridges. She is the recipient of a Screenwriting Fellowship with Walt Disney Studios, was honored in 2005 with a NAACP Trailblazer Award and in 2010 received a Distinguished Alumni Award from Emerson College. An accomplished filmmaker, her most recent short, A Private Act, had its World Premiere at the St. Louis International Film Festival and is available on Vimeo. Having last directed The Whipping Man for LATheatreWorks, she returns in January of 2017, to direct Seven.
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Biography from IMDb.
- January 1, 1948 (78)
- Cleveland, Ohio, USA
- Actor
- 27 on MovieCove · 41 credits in all
What are Judyann Elder's films like?
Across a limited sample of 4 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Bonds and Survival.
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 0 · Earnest 3
Light 0 · Serious 2 · Dark 1
Grounded 3 · Stylized 0 · Heightened 0
Gentle 0 · Charged 3 · Intense 0
Steady 1 · Shifting 2 · Whiplash 0
A split, not a type: Straight-faced 1 · Some laughs 2 · Funny 0
Slow burn 1 · Even-paced 2 · Relentless 0
Casual 2 · Engaged 1 · Full focus 0
A split, not a type: Easy watch 0 · Affecting 1 · Heavy 2
Resolved 3 · Open-ended 0 · Ambiguous 0
Moods and endings
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Judyann Elder's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 23 of their 27 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Hulu (11).
- Castle (2009) · actor
- Seven Pounds (2008) · actor
- ER (1994) · actor
- Desperate Housewives (2004) · actor
- Grey's Anatomy (2005) · actor
- NCIS (2003) · actor
- Home Improvement (1991) · actor
- That's So Raven (2003) · actor
- Mad About You (1992) · actor
- The Steve Harvey Show (1996) · actor
- Family Matters (1989) · actor
- A Woman Called Moses (1978) · actor · free
- V (1984) · actor · free
- Forget Paris (1995) · actor · free
- Benson (1979) · actor · free
- In the Custody of Strangers (1982) · actor · free
- In the House (1995) · actor · free
- The Players Club (1998) · actor · free
- Mad About You (1992) · actor · free
- The Steve Harvey Show (1996) · actor · free
- The Pest (1997) · actor · free
Subscription and free streaming for Judyann Elder's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
41 credits, 27 with a MovieCove page.
Viral(2016)
Midcredits score: 20th percentile of all films
A Private Act (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2013)
Castle(2009)
Midcredits score: 93rd percentile of all shows
Seven Pounds(2008)
Midcredits score: 90th percentile of all films
Grey's Anatomy(2005)
Midcredits score: 77th percentile of all shows
Blind Justice (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2005)
Desperate Housewives(2004)
Midcredits score: 81st percentile of all shows
Cold Case (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2003)
NCIS(2003)
Midcredits score: 77th percentile of all shows
Wanda at Large (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2003)
That's So Raven(2003)
Midcredits score: 40th percentile of all shows
First Monday (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2002)
Family Law (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1999)
Becker (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1998)
Dead Man on Campus(1998)
Midcredits score: 39th percentile of all films
The Players Club(1998)
Midcredits score: 47th percentile of all films
The Pest(1997)
Midcredits score: 23rd percentile of all films
The Steve Harvey Show(1996)
Midcredits score: 38th percentile of all shows
Sweet Temptation (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1996)
Forget Paris(1995)
Midcredits score: 62nd percentile of all films
In the House(1995)
Midcredits score: 52nd percentile of all shows
ER(1994)
Midcredits score: 88th percentile of all shows
Mad About You(1992)
Midcredits score: 38th percentile of all shows
Martin(1992)
Midcredits score: 72nd percentile of all shows
Home Improvement(1991)
Midcredits score: 64th percentile of all shows
Beverly Hills, 90210(1990)
Midcredits score: 36th percentile of all shows
Family Matters(1989)
Midcredits score: 33rd percentile of all shows
Those She Left Behind(1989)
Midcredits score: 44th percentile of all films
Midcredits score: 98th percentile of all shows
V(1984)
Midcredits score: 65th percentile of all shows
St. Elsewhere (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1982)
Matt Houston (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1982)
Midcredits score: 57th percentile of all films
The Oklahoma City Dolls (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1981)
Benson(1979)
Midcredits score: 59th percentile of all shows
A Woman Called Moses(1978)
Midcredits score: 68th percentile of all shows
Wonder Woman(1975)
Midcredits score: 50th percentile of all shows
Blume in Love(1973)
Midcredits score: 49th percentile of all films
The Streets of San Francisco (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1972)
Melinda (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1972)
Sanford and Son (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1972)
Career shape
Star power in the 83rd percentile of 239,109 people with a billed film role, over a full career of 41 titles from 1972 to 2016; peak year 1997.
Biggest box office
The Players Club (1998)
Highest rated
The Players Club (1998)
Most popular right now
Viral (2016)
Film career
Peak 1997 · fewer prominent film roles lately. Film roles by billing, audience size and rating; 25+ votes. A show carries a single first-air date, so shows are not on the curve.
- 1989Screen debut· Family Matters
- 1997First film· The Pest
Billing
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on MovieCove, shown from 5 scored. Billing is TMDB cast order for roles with 25+ votes, billed in the top 30.
How do Judyann Elder's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 47th percentile, the median of all 9; across a limited sample of 3 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 43rd percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up7
- 50th to 74th9
- 25th to 49th9
- Below 25th2
Shape of the crowd
12 of their 27 titles are Crowd Pleasers.
- Universally Loved3
- Cult Classic1
- Crowd Pleaser12
- Broadly Agreed1
- Mixed10
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Who does Judyann Elder work with?
People who share at least 2 of Judyann Elder's MovieCove titles; Dick Anthony Williams shares the most, 2.
- Dick Anthony WilliamsShared titles: The Players Club (1998), A Woman Called Moses (1978)See all 2 shared titles with Dick Anthony Williams
