Actor
Erika Alexander is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Pam Tucker on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show, and as Maxine Shaw on the FOX sitcom Living Single. She has won numerous awards for her work on Living Single, including two NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series. She was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Alexander got her big break as Pam Tucker on the critically acclaimed NBC sitcom The Cosby Show. She later starred alongside Whoopi Goldberg in the 1990 civil rights epic The Long Walk Home. Perhaps her most memorable role was as acid-tongued attorney Maxine 'Max' Shaw on the FOX sitcom Living Single, a role she played for five years.
In 1992, she appeared in the short-lived sitcom Going to Extremes, which centered on a group of American students at a medical school on a fictitious Caribbean island named Jantique.
In 2002, she played probation officer Dee Mulhern in the Showtime series Street Time, which ran for two seasons.
In international cinema, Alexander played the role of Hidimbi in Peter Brook's adaptation of The Mahabharata. She also played a young Flora in the TV miniseries Mama Flora's Family.
Her voice is featured on The Bible Experience. She actively campaigned for Hillary Clinton and toured college campuses with Chelsea Clinton, during the 2008 Democratic primary. She shares her birthday with Living Single co-star TC Carson and also appeared in Toni Braxton's music video for "You're Makin' Me High."
In 2009, she appeared in Criminal Minds in the Season 4 episode, "The Big Wheel" as Detective Lynne Henderson who requests the BAU's help in investigating a serial killer in Buffalo, New York.
She also appeared in the 2009 film La Mission opposite Benjamin Bratt. In 2011, she appeared in season 7, episode 13 of House M.D. where she played the character Ms. Fields.
Character
Pam Tucker, is Clair Huxtable's second cousin. The daughter of a single mother, Pam comes to live with the Huxtables after her mother moved to California to take care of Pam's grandmother. Upon moving in, Pam is 17 years old and a junior in high school. At first, she is not used to the Huxtables' upper-middle-class lifestyle or close-knit family relationships. Eventually, she fits in, and becomes just another one of the Huxtable clan.
Frequently, Pam is shown interacting with her best friend, Charmaine Brown and Charmaine's boyfriend, Lance Rodman.
