Roxanne Beckford was born in Kingston, Jamaica. She emigrated from the island in the late 70s, graduated from boarding school in South Florida, and from Davidson College with a degree in Psychology in 1986.
After working in public and community relations in Miami for Citibank and the Rouse Company, she arrived in Southern California in the late 80s to become a working actor. She has done that now for almost thirty years, starting out playing Whitley's cousin on A Different World and continuing to appear in television and movie roles even while marrying her husband and having and raising four children. After her marriage and the addition of the surname Hoge, Roxanne and her husband Bob founded a maternity clothing website in 1998. Their foray into the world of the internet and brick-and-mortar retail has lasted two decades, and taught them many lessons about entrepreneurship and the practical effects of government regulation.
She became a citizen of the United States after the turn of the century and keenly appreciates all the wonders of this great nation, especially of California. "I cannot imagine living anywhere other than Los Angeles," says the community activist and volunteer. "When LA's children and businesses were sacrificed over the past two years, while vulnerable seniors and our homeless population were ignored and all of us felt the rise in crime, we all looked to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and found most of them completely lacking." Her work to help connect disaffected parents and question political leadership led to a profile in Bari Weiss' Common Sense.