Valarie Pettiford Net Worth 2025: Income & Career

Discover Valarie Pettiford Net Worth in 2025, including her earnings from TV, film, and theater, plus how her career has shaped her financial success.

Aug 09, 2025

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Valarie Pettiford was born on July 8, 1960, in Queens, New York, to her parents Ralph and Blanch Pettiford. Her mother was a dancer and her father was a jazz bassist. She started dancing when she was just three years old and began studying music by age five. Valarie attended the High School of Performing Arts in New York City and graduated in 1978.

Stage

Pettiford starred in Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ and went on to replace Phyllis Hyman in the Broadway production of Sophisticated Ladies. She also starred in the original London production of Fosse, for which she was nominated for the Olivier Award as Best Actress in a Musical. She appeared on Broadway in the musical Grind, and understudied the role of Anita in the revival of West Side Story, eventually taking over the role. In 1998, Pettiford played Julie in the touring company of Show Boat. She played the role of Velma Kelly in the musical Chicago in the national tour and on Broadway in 1999. She later starred in a production of The Wild Party by Michael John LaChiusa as Queenie.

Film

Valarie Pettiford’s first movie role came in 1978, when she appeared as part of the ensemble in the musical The Wizwhile she was still in high school. She then played a dancer in The Cotton Club(1984), followed by a small role as a newscaster in Robots(1988). In Street Hunter(1990), she appeared as Denise. Her role as Lillian Frank in Glitter(2001) had her portraying Mariah Carey’s mother. She went on to appear in family and dance-themed films like Like Mike(2002) as Mrs. Boyd, Paris(2003) as Terry, Stomp the Yard(2007) as Aunt Jackie, and Why Am I Doing This?(2009) as Natalie. In Why Did I Get Married Too?(2010), she played Harriet, and she took on a brief, symbolic role as Angel of Death in the short film Not Your Time(2010).

She also appeared as Aunt Geneva in Jumping the Broom(2011). Later, she featured as Ms. Williams in Battlefield America(2012), and as Mildred “Momma” King in Note to Self(2012). Her more recent film roles include appearing in Love Will Keep Us Together(2013), The Dempsey Sisters(2013), My Favorite Five(2015), Will to Love(2015), The Secrets of Emily Blair(2016), The Preacher’s Son(2017), Jingle Belle(2018), and Senior Moment(2021). She also starred in holiday-themed TV movies such as Hip Hop Family Christmasand Merry Switchmasin 2021.

Television

Pettiford’s television credits include The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Jamie Foxx Show, The West Wing, CSI, Frasier, and Touched by an Angel. From 1990 to 1994, she starred on the ABC daytime soap opera One Life to Live as Sheila Price, earning an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series.

In 2002 and 2003, Pettiford was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Big Dee Dee Thorne on the UPN sitcom Half & Half, which aired from 2002 to 2006. In 2007, she starred in the musical special Jump In! alongside Corbin Bleu. She appeared in the second season of the TV series The Blacklist in 2014, playing the role of the titular character’s ex-wife, and in 2015 she guest-starred in an episode of Being Mary Jane. Pettiford appeared in the recurring role of Charlene Cooper on the drama series Valor from 2017 to 2018. In 2019, she played a recurring role as Lanie on the series A Discovery of Witches. In 2021, she appeared in the Netflix musical drama series Tiny Pretty Things as Monique Dubois.