Mablean Ephriam

Born Apr 23, 1949 · Hazlehurst, Mississippi, USA

Mablean Deloris Ephriam, Esq. (born April 23, 1949) is a former Los Angeles prosecuting attorney. She started her law career as a corrections officer in the Women's Division of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. She attended night classes at Whittier Law School where she earned her Juris Doctor degree in 1978. In 1982, she opened her own law practice, dealing mainly with personal injury and family law cases. She soon became a Los Angeles Prosecuting Attorney. In 1999, the television courtroom series Divorce Court was revived a third time for a 17th season, and she was named the show's arbitrator. She was the first star of the reality-based version of Divorce Court. Previous to that, the show used dramatic reenactments of real-life divorce cases. She was also the first African American and female to preside over the series. She presided over Divorce Court for seven seasons from 1999–2006. She was replaced by Judge Lynn Toler. Ephriam made a short appearance in the film adaptation of the play Diary of a Mad Black Woman. She also portrayed the same judge character in both Madea's Family Reunion and Madea Goes to Jail. She portrays a strict and stern judge character in Madea films, who frequently presides over the many cases Madea lands herself into, always as result of violent and destructive conduct. Ephriam returned to television in fall 2014 with a new courtroom series titled after her, Justice with Judge Mablean. The series, produced by Entertainment Studios, is airing on the Justice Central cable channel and syndicated on various stations. It is the fifth courtroom series from Entertainment Studios.