Salli Elise Richardson-Whitfield was born in Chicago Illinois on November 23, 1967. She is an American actress born to Marcia Harris, a African American and Cherokee mother and Duel Richardson an Italian and Irish father. Salli was raised in Chicago, that is where she played high school tennis, and started her career in acting in the Kuumba Workshop theater there. She is married to fellow actor Dondre Whitfield and they have a daughter named Parker Richardson Whitfield.