Alabama Not Just Football: 30 Amazing People Who Were Built By Bama
Sela Ward
Sela Ward is a television actress and graduate of the University of Alabama. Originally from Meridian, MS, she attended the University of Alabama where she was on the cheerleading team.
She began modeling and acted in television commercials and in supporting roles in movies. In 1983, she was in Emerald Point N.A.S., her first regular role in a series. Her breakout role came in the series Sisters, which ran from 1991-1996. While on the cast of Sisters, Ward won a Primetime Emmy and was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
In 1999, Sela Ward was cast as the lead in ABC’s Once and Again. She was nominated for three Golden Globes (with one win) and three Emmys (with one win). In 2010 she was brought on in a leading role in CSI: NY, and she was on the cast until the show went off the air in 2013.
On a trip home to Mississippi in 1998, Sela Ward visited an emergency shelter and met foster children who demonstrated the need for additional child services in her home state. This was the beginning of Hope Village, a residential facility for children who cannot live at home. Hope Village was founded by Sela Ward in 2000, and in 2002 the facility began accepting children. It continues to operate as a transitional and permanent home for children in Mississippi. Hope Village is a private non-profit that is run by funding from private donations, government grants, and the operations of their thrift store in downtown Meridian.
Ward continues to be active in television and motion pictures.