"I'm not a stereotypical entrepreneur . . . I was typecast as a bimbo."
She was a Miss Louisiana, a budding actor with roles like the waitress in the movie Spaceballs or on TV's Married with Children and an early woman in stand-up comedy. In 1990, she became that sexy-funny cable TV kitten of USA: Up All Night, where she injected her own comedy while hosting low-budget movies every Friday night.
Talk about reinvention. Now she's running a fast-growing shapewear and intimates firm in St. Petersburg. She's won multiple area entrepreneur awards. And she's a regional finalist competing in this year's Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Florida with the winners due to be announced Thursday.
She is Rhonda Shear, 57, a mile-a-minute, laugh-a-moment success story. With husband Van Fagan, she's turned Shear Enterprises into a 26-employee business with $73 million in annual revenues (and counting). The former Californian relocated to St. Petersburg in 2006 to be closer to TV retailer Home Shopping Network (now called HSN) where her breakthrough product — the "Ahh Bra" — helped put Shear Enterprises on the fast track.
Read more at the Tampa Bay Times.