Celebrity Nooz: Nia Peeples

Nia Peeples (Actress) Fame

Updated: 5/24/22

Name: Nia Peeples

Birth Name: Virenia Gwendolyn Peeples

Born: December 10, 1961 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Claim To Fame: Nia Peeples is an American R&B and dance music singer and actress who is known for playing Nicole Chapman on the hit TV series Fame; Pam Fields on the drama Pretty Little Liars; Karen Taylor Winters on The Young and the Restless and Sydney Cooke on Walker, Texas Ranger.

Family Life: Peeples was married to Guy Ecker from 1984-1986. In 1989, she married Howard Hewett; they have a son, Christopher Eugene Howard Hewett. The couple later divorced in 1993. Peeples then married Lauro Chartrand in 1997 and they divorced in 2004; they had a daughter Sienna Noelle Peeples. She then married Sam George in 2007, but where later divorced in 2016.

Info: The daughter of Elizabeth Joan, a flamenco dancer, and Robert Eugene Peeples, an artist.

Her maternal grandparents were immigrants from the Philippines. Her father was of Scottish, English, and Irish ancestry.

Peeples attended UCLA, during which time she performed as Liberace's opening act in Las Vegas on weekends.

In 2009, Peeples presented Debbie Allen with a Lifetime Achievement Award at The Carnival: Choreographer's Ball 10th anniversary show.

Operates an internet based organization called Elements of Life, which promotes fitness, inspiration, healthy lifestyle changes and emotional well-being.

Peeples became a grandmother. Her son welcomed a boy, Robert Eugene (Bobby Gene) Callans on February 7, 2022. The child is named after her father.

Trivia: Peeples started her career as part of the performance group The Young Americans.

Peeples got her break when she accompanied a friend to a rehearsal one day and was spotted by the producers, who cast her in the play "Music Shop".

Most notably, Peeples portrayed performing arts student Nicole Chapman on the hit TV series Fame.

She was once engaged to her "Fame" co-star, actor Carlo Imperato.

She hosted the short-lived American version of Top of the Pops in 1987, and a weeknight dance music program called The Party Machine with Nia Peeples in the early '90s.

In 1988 she hit #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart with "Trouble", which climbed to #35 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1991, her most successful pop single "Street Of Dreams" hit #12 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Peeples portrayed Texas Ranger Sydney Cooke in the CBS hit series Walker, Texas Ranger from 1999 to 2001.

In 2007, Peeples joined the cast of The Young and the Restless, for two years, playing the role of Karen Taylor.

In 2010, she was cast in ABC Family's TV series Pretty Little Liars, based on the book series by Sara Shepard.

Where Are They Now: These days, Peeples has numerous projects in the works.

She's providing her voice for Dante's Hell, Dante's Purgatory, and Dante's Paradise, a series of films based on Dante's Inferno story, which are in post-production.

And the drama Miracle Underground, fictionalized account of the 33 Chilean miners and there struggle to survive such a harrowing ordeal, is set for release at the end of 2022.

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