Jo Marie Payton

Jo Marie Payton is an American actress who portrayed Harriette Winslow on the sitcom Family Matters. Born in Albany, Georgia, and raised in Florida, she graduated from Albany State University and later performed with a national tour of the musical Purlie. Her break came in 1987 when she was cast as Harriette, who ran an elevator on the ABC sitcom Perfect Strangers, and the character's popularity led to her own sitcom, Family Matters, in 1989. There she played a Chicago mother in a middle-class Black family until she left during the final season in 1997. From 2001 to 2005 she voiced Suga Mama Proud on the animated series The Proud Family, and she returned as Suga Mama for The Proud Family Movie, a 2005 television film, and the part brought her an NAACP Image Award nomination in 2005. She also had a recurring role on Will & Grace as the assistant to Gregory Hines' character Ben Doucette.