Tami Roman

Tami has been in a romantic relationship with Reggie Youngblood since 2014.

Tami is a devout Muslim and follows the Islamic way of life as much as she can. This is mostly due to the influence of her former stepfather, Ali Akbar, whom she highly admired.

Tami Roman was born Tamisha Akbar, on April 17, 1970, to a single mother, Nadine Buford, in Mount Vernon, US. She was raised in White Plains, New York City. Tami’s father was a Puerto Rican man who had left Nadine when she got pregnant at the age of 15. Tami was born amidst a difficult financial situation. Tami spent most of her formative years of her life alone in her house, as her mother had to work three jobs to make ends meet.

Tami was responsible for looking after herself. Soon, Nadine met a man named Ali Akbar and started dating him. He was a good man and had enough money to take care of Nadine and Tami. Thus, things began to improve soon. Ali was an ardent Muslim and introduced Tami to the Muslim way of life. He made sure Tami got the best education possible. However, Ali was a highly conservative man and this gave rise to problems in the family.

Ali and Nadine often fought, as Ali believed that women should be submissive to men. Soon, Nadine divorced him, and the mother–daughter duo was on the streets again.

The situation worsened over the next few months. Tami and her mother were homeless during most of Tami’s high-school days. However, this made Nadine and Tami develop a close bond, and they supported each other emotionally to help them deal with the harsh period.

Sadly, Tami was unable to attend her graduation ceremony, as she had no money to buy a cap and a gown. The family was going through tough times. Thankfully, the situation improved when Tami started doing odd jobs soon after graduation.

In 1993, she was selected for the second season of the hit ‘MTV’ reality show ‘The Real World.’ The show’s format required strangers to live in the same house as cameras around the house recorded their every move. Tami was one of the finalists of that season and gained a huge fan following in the entire country.

She was the first contestant to have an abortion on live TV. She soon became the talk of the town and was almost a national celebrity by the time the show ended.

In 1993, she landed her first TV role in the sitcom ‘Married...with Children,’ which had her portraying the character of ‘Meg’ in one episode. In 1994, she appeared in the crime-drama show ‘Silk Stalkings.’

For the next few years, Tami appeared in spin-offs and other shows related to ‘The Real World,’ such as ‘The Real World Vacations: Behind the Scenes,’ ‘The Real World Reunion,’ and ‘The Real World You Never Saw.’ In 2000, she appeared in the popular sitcom ‘The Parkers.’

In 2001, she appeared on the popular shows ‘Card Sharks’ and ‘20/20’. The same year, she appeared on ‘The Steve Harvey Show’ and in the TV movie ‘Sacred is the Flesh.’ She continued with her regular guest appearances on shows such as ‘The Drew Carey Show,’ ‘One on One,’ and ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch.’