Caryn Johnson, born in 1955, was raised by her mother in the racially mixed Chelsea district in New York City. By ninth grade she had quit school and begun wandering around Central Park in search of drugs. While these experiences might have produced still another urban horror story, this young woman's life took a dramatic turn the day she decided to move west - and change her name to Whoopi Goldberg.

Relocating to San Diego with Alexandrea, her daughter from her first marriage to her drug counselor, was not easy. She lived on welfare and scrambled for whatever jobs she could get, including work as a bricklayer and as a makeup artist for a mortician. While in San Diego, Whoopi joined an improvisational troupe where she honed her comedic talents.

She began doing stand-up comedy, spending time in Berkeley, but eventually moving back to New York, where her one-woman show was discovered by director Mike Nichols. In the mid-1980s, Nichols brought her show to Broadway, and she won a Grammy for it. But her big break came when Steven Spielberg cast her in the demanding role of Celie in the film version of Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple, a performance that won her a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination.

She went on to win an Academy Award for her role in Ghost. Whoopi Goldberg had finally made it big. This insightful biography traces the life and career of this multitalented artist, exploring what makes her tick, how her irreverent and irrepressible persona gets her into trouble, why she is such a workaholic, and how this unconventional funky lady has earned the reputation as a femme fatale.