Mablean Ephriam

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 Womens 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 shows arbitrator She was the first star of the realitybased version of Divorce Court Previous to that the show used dramatic reenactments of reallife 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 19992006 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 Madeas 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