Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955),[3] known professionally as Whoopi Goldberg (/ˈhwʊpi/), is an American actress, comedian, author, voice artist, filmmaker, theatre director, author and television host. She has been nominated for 13 Emmy Awards for her work in television and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Oscar, and a Tony Award. She was the second black woman in the history of the Academy Awards to win an acting Oscar.
In the period drama film The Color Purple (1985), her breakthrough role was playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In the romantic fantasy film Ghost(1990), Goldberg played Oda Mae Brown, an eccentric psychic who helped a slain man (Patrick Swayze) save his lover (Demi Moore), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
In 1992, she starred as a pretend nun in the comedy Sister Act. In television, Goldberg is known for her role as Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and since 2007, she has been the moderator of the daytime television talk show The View.
