Loretta Devine (𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 August 21, 1949) is an American movie, stage and television actress. She has starred on many television sitcoms, like A Different World. She acted in the movies Waiting to Exhale, I Am Sam, For Colored Girls and many others. She has won several Emmy Awards.

She is an actress and singer, best known for her roles as Marla Hendricks in the Fox drama series Boston Public, and for her recurring role as Adele Webber on the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in 2011.

She had a role in the series Everybody Hates Chris as Rochelle’s mother. In film, Devine appeared in Waiting to Exhale, The Preacher’s Wife, Hoodlum, I Am Sam, Urban Legend, What Women Want, Kingdom Come, Crash, Woman Thou Art Loosed, Class Act, For Colored Girls, This Christmas, First Sunday, Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Jumping the Broom. She also played Cynthia Carmichael on the NBC sitcom The Carmichael Show.

In 1995, she landed a major role as Gloria Matthews in Waiting to Exhale, opposite Whitney Houston, Gregory Hines, and Angela Bassett. The role earned her an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, as did her next movie, The Preacher’s Wife, her second movie with Houston and Hines.She later co-starred opposite Alfre Woodard in Down in the Delta (1998) and Funny Valentines (1999).