Berry grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, as one of seven children raised by a single mother. The family was poor and her mother struggled with alcoholism. In a 1994 article, Berry reflected on her upbringing and her mother's abusiveness when she was "in one of her frightening stages of drunkenness."^[1] Berry ultimately forgave her mother, writing that "her drinking was a way to mask her own pain. I think of the burden she endured as a black woman with few resources for herself or her children."^[1]

Despite being told that she should give up on attending college,^[2] Berry graduated with a B.A. degree, magna cum laude, from Jacksonville University in Florida in 1982. She subsequently obtained an M.A. degree in 1986 and a Ph.D. degree in 1988, both in sociology from Kent State University in Ohio.^{[citation needed]} In 1994, she was awarded an honorary D.H.L. degree by Jacksonville University.^[3]

After completing her doctorate, Berry taught sociology at Kent State University.^[4] In the early 1990s, she left academia to work as an entertainer, lecturer, and comedian. She was the host and co-executive producer of her own nationally syndicated talk show, The Bertice Berry Show, from 1993 to 1994.^[2] According to legend, the show's September 1993 debut was delayed by news coverage of the Oslo I Accord; when the show finally aired an hour later, Berry quipped "We've got peace, now here's Bertice."^[5] Alas, the show never found an audience and production shut down seven months later, in summer 1994.^[6]

Besides having her own talk show, Berry has also appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, TEDx Talk, CBS Nightwatch, CNN's Crossfire, and Sonya Live.^[7]

She is the author of two memoirs entitled The World According to Me (1996) and I'm On My Way, But Your Foot Is On My Head: A Black Woman's Story of Getting Over Life's Hurdles (1997), as well as several novels. She also wrote The Ties That Bind: A Memoir of Race, Memory and Redemption (2009) about her African American heritage.^[8] Berry's self-help book about her weight-loss journey is entitled A Year to Wellness and Other Weight Loss Secrets (2010), and it won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work (Instructional) in 2012.^[9]

Berry lives in Savannah, Georgia, where she is the co-owner of Iona's Gallery & Great Finds.^[6]

1. Walk With Purpose, Collide With Destiny
2. A Year To Wellness; And Other Weight Loss Secrets
3. The Ties That Bind: A Memoir of Race, Memory, and Redemption (2009)
4. When Love Calls, You Better Answer (2006)
5. Jim and Louella's Homemade Heart-fix Remedy: A Novel (2003)
6. Redemption Song: A Novel (2001)
7. Haunting of Hip Hop (2001)
8. I'm on My Way but Your Foot Is on My Head: A Black Woman's Story of Getting Over Life's Hurdles (1997)
9. You Still Ghetto: You Know You're Still Ghetto If... (1997)
10. Sckraight From The Ghetto: You Know You're Ghetto If . . .(1996)
11. BERTICE: The World According to Me (1996)

• Bertice Berry official site