Cynthia Blaise is an actress and dialect coach whose credits include an on-screen role in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and coaching work on 8 Mile and Bad Teacher. She is also the former wife of comedian and actor Keegan-Michael Key. They married in 1998, separated in 2015 and divorced in 2017.
Her professional background extends to university teaching and contributions to a public dialect archive, where recordings she made remain available to listeners.
Her Marriage to Keegan-Michael Key
Blaise and Key married on December 27, 1998. Court documents cited by PEOPLE give November 15, 2015, as their agreed separation date.
Key filed for divorce on December 31, 2015, citing irreconcilable differences. Contemporary reporting described the couple as married for 17 years and confirmed that they had no children together.
Their divorce was finalized in November 2017. References to a “17-year marriage” therefore describe the period before their separation; the legal marriage continued for almost 19 years.
The couple also worked together on screen. Blaise appeared in Key & Peele, and both performed in the 2010 Second City comedy short Meditations on Yoga: Ode to a Cougar.
Cynthia Blaise’s Coaching and Acting Credits
Coaching accounts for most of Blaise’s listed film and television work. Her credits include dialect coaching on The Spitfire Grill, 8 Mile, Faster, Bad Teacher, Blackhat and The Tiger Hunter.
Some production credits identify the actors she assisted. IMDb lists her as dialogue coach for Gong Li on Miami Vice and Penélope Cruz on Bandidas, and as dialect coach for Tim Roth on Hardcore Henry. Those assignments were behind the camera.
Her acting work forms a smaller, separate list:
| Production | Acting credit |
|---|---|
| Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) | Amanda |
| Timequest | Teacher |
| Key & Peele | Several characters across five episodes, 2012–2015 |
| Robot Chicken | Glynnis and Nanny, voice roles in a 2016 episode |
These roles are listed in IMDb’s acting credits for Blaise.
Keeping the two kinds of work separate gives a clearer picture of her career: she performed in films and television while also taking on specialized speech assignments for other actors.
Theater Training, Teaching and Recorded Dialects
Blaise earned a bachelor’s degree in theater from the University of Oregon and an MFA in acting from the University of California, Irvine, according to her professional biography at the International Dialects of English Archive, or IDEA.
The same biography identifies her as a Certified Associate in Fitzmaurice voice work and records teaching experience at Temple University, Wayne State University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. It also lists academic directing work, including Equus and Crimes of the Heart.
IDEA credits Blaise with contributions from several regions, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ontario. One entry, “Ontario 1,” names her as the person who recorded a Windsor speaker on August 18, 1999. She also supplied commentary describing features of the speaker’s pronunciation.
That recording provides a specific example of her work beyond film credits: readers can hear the speech sample and read her accompanying observations.
The Divorce Settlement and Questions About Her Life Today
PEOPLE reported that the settlement included $34,000 in monthly spousal support and a $655,649 payment to equalize the division of assets. Additional support depended on Key’s earnings, with a reported annual ceiling of $700,000 in total support.
Those historical financial terms do not establish Blaise’s current net worth. They also should not be presented as confirmation of what she receives today.
Her listed credits include The Tiger Hunter and Robot Chicken in 2016. A filmography records particular productions; it does not establish whether someone subsequently retired, continued teaching or accepted private coaching assignments.
Blaise’s documented career spans acting, coaching, teaching and dialect recordings. Those contributions provide a fuller account of her professional life alongside the marriage and divorce that brought her wider public attention.
