It’s after midnight at the legendary Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard. Standing backstage in a dim, narrow hallway is a bubbly, vivacious woman waiting for her turn to go onstage to do her 15-minute routine. She sighs, “I have to be at work early tomorrow morning.” Then she smiles, “Even though I’m on a television show, I still have to wait around like everybody else.”

Yes, even though Sherri Shepherd gets big laughs as Claude Casey’s feisty gal pal, “Ramona Platt,” on ABC’s freshman hit “Less Than Perfect,” she still returns almost every week to where she began her showbiz career as a stand-up comic. “Stand-up will always be my first love. I enjoy writing my own material and having my own voice onstage,” explains Shepherd.

Born in Chicago, Shepherd was one of four girls raised in a strict Jehovah’s Witness home. Though her friends always called her the class clown and presumed she’d end up in showbiz, Shepherd tried to steer her life in a more traditional direction by entering trade school and becoming a legal secretary. She didn’t attempt stand-up until she was dared to go  onstage and follow raunchy comedian Andrew Dice Clay (whom she now refers to as one of the “the sweetest men”). Her moment in the spotlight went well enough to prompt Shepherd to attend open mic nights at local clubs, slowly building her act. “It was not an easy decision to pursue entertainment as a career. Being raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, I always heard about how sinful it was to be in show business. Even when I was 18 and had stopped practicing [that religion], I always felt I couldn’t go to any other church. I was taught that if I did, I’d go to hell. So I began doing my own thing, and that ended up working out really well for me,” she jokes.

Though she was busy quipping one-liners onstage at night, Shepherd’s personal life became a series of tragedies. As she continued to pursue show business, the wild, after-hours lifestyle began to take its toll on her. “I was basically homeless,” she admits. “Not on the street but sleeping on one couch to the next and not always knowing where I was going to crash next. For a long time, I was so empty; I felt like I was one of the walking dead.”

It was a dating relationship with the drummer for Dr. Dre (name withheld) back in 1993 that was responsible for Shepherd’s turn to Christ. The fact that this man insisted they remain celibate in their relationship touched Shepherd’s heart. “I had been promiscuous in the past, so when I found someone who cared for me and not my body, there was something healing in that for me.”

However, Shepherd didn’t automatically adopt the Christian beliefs of her boyfriend. “I struggled with God for a long time. I argued with Him,” she admits. “I was so afraid of what I would lose if I became a Christian. My stand-up was starting to go well. I didn’t want to suddenly become some cheesy, corny Christian comic. And I didn’t want to give up sex. But God spoke to me and said, ‘Sherri, let go of it and trust Me to give you something so much better.’ And at first I said, ‘No, God. Are you kidding me? I don’t trust You that much.’ But eventually I gave in because I knew God wasn’t going to stop calling my name. So I prayed and gave everything over to Him. From that moment absolutely everything started to change in my life. I started making completely different choices about relationships, money … everything.”

Though she and her boyfriend eventually went separate ways, Shepherd’s professional career began to take off. Her first TV break was on the short-lived series “Cleghorne!” starring SNL alum Ellen Cleghorne. She continued to get work with recurring roles on NBC comedies like “Suddenly Susan” and guest appearances on “Friends” and “Living Single,” but she has become most recognizable for her recurring character “Sgt. Judy Potter,” Robert Barone’s police partner on “Everybody Loves Raymond.”

“Each show was an assignment, a divine appointment,” she says. “God really seems to place me around people who are hurting and are searching for hope and healing. When I came on ‘Suddenly Susan,’ it was just after David Strickland (“Todd”) had killed himself. That whole cast was in a world of hurt. I prayed with Brooke Shields while I was on that show. When I was on ‘Emeril,’ Robert Urich (“Jerry”) was dying of cancer. I would go up to him and share Bible verses to try and encourage him. Robert came back to me later and told me he used them in his motivational speaking engagements and that the Scriptures were helping him.”

Even with those past experiences of being a light in the darkness, Shepherd had a little hesitation about her “Less than Perfect” role opposite Andy Dick, an actor with such a troubled past he has his own E! “True Hollywood Story.” “When I heard I was going to work with Andy Dick on the show, I thought, ‘OK, this is going to be scary,’” she admits. “But my accountability girlfriend said, ‘You don’t know what he’s really like or what God might do.’”

Shepherd took that advice to heart. “Now I love Andy so much. We pray together on a regular basis. One day he came into my dressing room and put his head on my shoulder and just cried. I told him, ‘Andy, there is a reason you are still alive. God loves you very much, and He has a wonderful plan for your life. You just have so many other voices around you right now, you can’t hear Him.’” Through the unconditional love she has shown, Andy Dick is now occasionally attending church with Shepherd along with their co-star Zachary Levi.

Even with her success, it’s clear what gives Shepherd the most joy these days — her marriage of two years to actor Jeff T. She met him in a comedy club one night several years ago, and the two clicked immediately. The problem? Jeff T. wasn’t a Christian at the time.

Shepherd says, “I totally compromised everything. I knew what the Bible said about being unequally yoked. But I got involved with Jeff anyway. And I would not wish what I went through on anyone.”

She says she wrestled with God over the matter. “Jeff was such a great guy. I told God, ‘Come on, I’m never going to find a man better than this.’ But finally, I had to let Jeff go. I had to tell him, ‘I love you, but I love Jesus more.’”

The couple broke up, and their estrangement lasted about one year. Then Jeff called Shepherd one day and surprised her with the news that he had started going to church and was now a born-again Christian. A few months later, the couple was engaged. “I can’t tell you how much God did in Jeff’s life once I got out of His way. I have an amazing husband who is an incredible spiritual leader. Once again, when I let go, God gave me something so much better than what I had before.”

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