Cynthia Blaise is best known as the former wife of comedian and actor Keegan-Michael Key, though she has a working career of her own as an actress and dialect coach. The story of Cynthia Blaise and Keegan-Michael Key runs from a 1998 wedding to a divorce finalised in 2017, with no children. If you’re asking who is Cynthia Blaise beyond that outline, the record is solid on her profession and marriage, and the pages offering a precise Cynthia Blaise age or Cynthia Blaise net worth rarely say where the numbers came from.
She gets searched whenever Key is in the news. His 2018 remarriage, each new season of a show or film, and every red-carpet interview send readers looking for his first wife, and the results are a pile of near-identical pages. Some give her different birth dates. Some say she’s 65 and others 61, depending on when they were written. One attaches her to an industry that no source connects her to.
This profile is deliberately shorter on colour and longer on caveats. It sticks to what Wikipedia, IMDb, People (as relayed by other outlets) and her own listed professional bio say, flags everything else as repeated rather than confirmed, and leaves out her address, her health and any claim about her private finances beyond figures reported from the divorce.
Cynthia Blaise Quick Facts
| Topic | Available Information |
| Name | Cynthia Blaise |
| Known for | Actress and dialect coach; former wife of Keegan-Michael Key |
| Marriage | Keegan-Michael Key: married 1998 (IMDb gives December 27, 1998), divorced 2017 |
| How they met | Reportedly at the Detroit Repertory Theatre; sourced to secondary pages only |
| Children | None reported |
| Hometown | Not publicly confirmed; “United States” is as specific as the pages get |
| Birth date and age | IMDb says January 12, 1958; another page says April 6, 1958; both make her 68 in 2026 |
| Profession | Actress, voice and dialect coach |
| Education | BA in Theatre, University of Oregon; MFA in Acting, UC Irvine, per her professional bio |
| Current status and location | Los Angeles-based since 2005 per her bio; nothing more recent |
| Social media | No verified accounts found |
| Net worth | No reliable independently verified figure |
The first four rows and the profession and education rows are well supported. The hometown, personal finances and present-day details are mostly repetition.
Who Is Cynthia Blaise?
An actress, voice and speech trainer and dialect coach who was married to Keegan-Michael Key for about seventeen years. Wikipedia’s article on Key says he was married to Cynthia Blaise, an actress and dialect coach, from 1998 until 2017. IMDb lists her as an actress who also works as a dialect coach, born in 1958, and names Key as her spouse.
That’s a firmer foundation than most private-life profiles have. She has credits, a professional listing and a teaching history. What she hasn’t given, as far as I could find, is a published interview, and I found no verified social media account in her name.
Why Is Cynthia Blaise Famous?
Mostly because of her ex-husband, though she isn’t only a footnote.
Keegan-Michael Key was born in Southfield, Michigan, on March 22, 1971, per Wikipedia, and became widely known for Key & Peele and later film and television work. Searches for his first marriage spike around his projects and his 2018 wedding. Blaise also appears on Key & Peele herself, in small roles credited on IMDb as an adoption agency worker and Mrs. Carruthers across 2012 to 2015, so some readers arrive from the credits, not the gossip.
Cynthia Blaise and Keegan-Michael Key: How They Met
Briefly and Legit.ng both say the two met at the Detroit Repertory Theatre. That’s the single origin story the pages share, and it fits the setting: both were working in theatre in the 1990s.
It rests on those two pages alone. I couldn’t find an interview or a primary account from either of them, so I’d call it plausible and widely repeated, not documented. Other stories, such as a classroom meeting or a mutual friend, appear on a handful of pages with no source at all.
The Marriage
IMDb gives December 27, 1998, as the wedding date, and Wikipedia says 1998. They were married for roughly seventeen years before separating. Several pages mention a 14-year age gap. That’s unsourced and doesn’t quite add up: on IMDb’s birth year of 1958 and Wikipedia’s 1971 for Key, the gap is 13 years.
Beyond the date, the details are thin. I couldn’t find a venue, a guest list or a photograph I could verify, which fits with how little either of them has said about it. It lasted most of two decades.
Why Did Cynthia Blaise and Keegan-Michael Key Divorce?
Nobody has explained it in the first person. Wikipedia says they legally separated in November 2015 and that Key filed for divorce the following month. Briefly puts the separation at November 15, 2015. Legit.ng gives “irreconcilable differences” as the reason, which is the standard wording on such filings and says nothing about what actually happened.
Plenty of pages go further and offer reasons or blame. None names a court document or a statement from either of them. A divorce is a private event for the people in it, and without a source an explanation is just a headline.
The Divorce Settlement
The financial terms are the best-documented part of the story, and they were reported by People in November 2017. Briefly, citing People, says the court ordered Key to pay $34,000 a month in spousal support, plus 21% of his gross annual income above $2.15 million, with total support capped at $700,000 gross a year. It adds a settlement of about $655,000.
A St. Charles, Missouri, divorce law firm’s blog post repeats the $34,000 monthly figure and a one-time payment of about $655,650, and adds that support runs until either party’s death or her remarriage. That post cites People, not court records, so it’s a relay and not an independent check. I haven’t opened the original People article.
IMDb gives the finalisation date as November 16, 2017, which matches the date of the People report. Wikipedia says the divorce was finalised in November 2017. Those terms say what a court reportedly ordered. They don’t say what she holds today.
Cynthia Blaise’s Children
None, according to Briefly, Legit.ng and the law firm’s post. Wikipedia’s article on Key doesn’t mention any children from the marriage either. That’s consistent, and it’s about as clear as this topic gets.
What Does Cynthia Blaise Do for a Living?
She’s a dialect coach and actress. IMDb lists dialogue or dialect coaching credits including Miami Vice, Bandidas, Faster, Bad Teacher, Blackhat and The Tiger Hunter, and acting credits including Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), where she played Amanda, Timequest (2000) and a voice role in Robot Chicken (2016). IMDb also lists a production staff credit on Eli Stone (2009).
Her professional bio on the Dialects Archive site describes her as a voice and speech trainer who has taught at Temple University, Wayne State University and the University of Illinois at Chicago, and says she has been based in Los Angeles since 2005. That page doesn’t mention Key, so I’m treating it as the same person only because the name, the field and the education match what other pages say. That’s a reasonable match, not proof.
Cynthia Blaise’s Age and Birthplace
Her age is close to settled but the date isn’t. IMDb says January 12, 1958. Briefly says April 6, 1958, in the United States. Legit.ng, writing in 2019, says only 1958 and estimates 61. Every source agrees on the year, which makes 1958 the safe figure.
Here’s something worth noticing: Legit.ng takes its birth year from a link to another site, so the 1958 may trace back to a single source that the others then repeated. If 1958 is right, she turned 68 in 2026 whichever of the two dates is correct. Treat that as an estimate from subtraction, not a record. Her birthplace isn’t confirmed, and I haven’t repeated any city.
What Is Cynthia Blaise’s Net Worth?
There’s no figure worth trusting. Briefly gives an estimate of $1 million for 2023, citing a celebrity-wealth site, but that’s a third-party guess and the article says the divorce settlement “boosted” it, which is circular. She isn’t an officeholder or a company founder, so no filings or disclosures exist.
The reported settlement and monthly support are court-ordered figures from 2017, not a measure of present assets. If a site gives a net worth, ask where it came from. Repeating it doesn’t make it true.
Where Is Cynthia Blaise Now?
Her own bio says she’s been based in Los Angeles since 2005, and I’m leaving it at that city-level claim. I haven’t confirmed a current address or employer, and wouldn’t repeat one if I had.
Several profiles describe a quiet life after the divorce. It’s plausible, but “quiet life” is the kind of phrase that gets repeated because it sounds right. I found no recent interview that confirms it.
Rumours and Mistakes About Cynthia Blaise
The same errors keep circulating. She’s called Key’s current wife, a co-star on Key & Peele, the mother of his children, a woman who left a fortune untouched and, on one page, a performer in an unrelated industry that I found no source for. Others claim a hidden Hollywood career, three marriages and a string of awards. None cites anything.
Some pages quote health struggles and personal hardship after the separation, attributed to a gossip outlet. I haven’t repeated any of that. It’s the sort of claim about a private person that needs far better backing than a relayed tabloid line.
It helps to look at how a claim is phrased. A real source says who, where and when; an invented one says “reportedly”, “it is said” or “according to some accounts” and stops there. A page that gives her a “hidden career” but can’t name a single credit has told you what it’s worth.
Why Cynthia Blaise Stays Out of the Spotlight
I won’t invent a reason. She works behind the camera for the most part, which is a perfectly good explanation, though that’s my guess and not something she’s said. Nothing I found suggests she has tried to profit from the connection to Key: no book, no podcast, no tell-all.
A dialect coach is paid to be unseen. It’s quite possible that’s simply the job, and the attention in 2017 came from the size of the settlement and not from her.
Separating Facts From Myths About Cynthia Blaise
Reasonably well-supported: she’s an actress and dialect coach, she was married to Keegan-Michael Key from 1998 to 2017, and the divorce was finalised in November 2017 with no children.
Weakly supported or unconfirmed: that they met at the Detroit Repertory Theatre, her exact birth date, her birthplace, the 14-year age gap, her net worth and her day-to-day life now.
Not supported at all: that she’s Key’s current wife, that she has children with him, that she’s a performer in any unrelated industry, and any specific net worth.
A Timeline of Cynthia Blaise’s Publicly Known Story
1958: Born, per IMDb (January 12) and Briefly (April 6); birthplace unconfirmed.
1989: Plays Amanda in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, per IMDb.
December 27, 1998: Marries Keegan-Michael Key, per IMDb.
2005: Based in Los Angeles, per her professional bio.
2012 to 2015: Appears in small roles on Key & Peele, per IMDb.
November 2015: Legally separated, per Wikipedia.
December 2015: Key files for divorce, per Wikipedia.
November 2017: Divorce finalised, per Wikipedia; IMDb gives November 16.
June 8, 2018: Key marries Elisa Pugliese in New York City, per Wikipedia.
Why People Keep Searching for Cynthia Blaise
It comes down to Key and the divorce numbers. Every new project and every mention of his first marriage sends a few people looking for the woman behind the headline, and the settlement figures make the question more tempting. A former spouse with a thin public footprint is exactly the kind of search content farms love, because there’s demand and little on record to contradict whatever gets written.
That’s why the pages sound so alike. They’re answering questions the record can’t answer, and copying the page above is the cheapest way to fill the gap.
Cynthia Blaise in 2026
She’s still a working dialect coach and actress by every listing I found, still Key’s former wife and still a private person. Key has been married to Elisa Pugliese since 2018. Past those facts, almost everything else, from her birth date to her bank balance, is unconfirmed or contradicted from one source to the next.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Cynthia Blaise
Who is Cynthia Blaise?
Cynthia Blaise is best known as the former wife of actor Keegan-Michael Key. She is an actress and dialect coach, and the couple had no children.
When did Cynthia Blaise and Keegan-Michael Key marry?
They married in 1998, according to Wikipedia. IMDb gives the date as December 27, 1998, and says the divorce was finalised in November 2017.
How old is Cynthia Blaise?
Her exact birth date is not confirmed. IMDb says January 12, 1958 and another page says April 6, 1958, so she would be 68 in 2026.
How many children does Cynthia Blaise have?
None have been reported. Briefly and Legit.ng say the marriage to Keegan-Michael Key produced no children.
What is Cynthia Blaise’s net worth?
There is no reliable, independently verified net-worth figure for Cynthia Blaise. One third-party estimate of $1 million exists, but it is not backed by disclosed income, assets or records.
Cynthia Blaise’s public story is short: a working career in voice and dialect coaching, a marriage of about seventeen years and a 2017 divorce settled without children. That’s what the record supports, and anything beyond it is somebody’s guess.