Salli Elise Richardson-Whitfield was born on November 23, 1967. She is an American television and film actress. She is known for her role on Eureka and her voice acting on Gargoyles.

Richardson-Whitfield was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of an African American mother and an Irish-Italian father. Her father is a businessman from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Richardson played tennis in high school, and launched her acting career in the Kuumba Workshop theater there. She graduated from the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools in 1985.

Her acting credits include: A Low Down Dirty Shame, Posse, and Antwone Fisher. She has also guest-starred in numerous television shows, such as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Silk Stalkings, New York Undercover, The Pretender and Secret Agent Man. Richardson had a recurring role as "Kim" on the show Mercy Point and as "Nancy Adams" on Rude Awakening. Salli played "Viveca Foster" on the television drama Family Law. She is best known by animation fans as the voice of Elisa Maza on the animated series Gargoyles. Currently she is cast as Department of Defense agent (and later head of Global Dynamics) Allison Blake in the television series Eureka, which airs on the SyFy Channel. Her second pregnancy was written into the storyline of the series. She appeared in the 2007 zombie film I Am Legend alongside actor Will Smith.

Salli has dated Matthew McConaughey, Sean Combs, and Tupac Shakur, and on September 8, 2002, she married long-time boyfriend and fellow actor Dondre Whitfield. Richardson and Whitfield have one daughter, Parker Richardson-Whitfield and one son, Dre Terrell Whitfield (born January 24, 2009).