Virenia Gwendolyn "Nia" Peeples (born December 10, 1961) is an American R&B and dance music singer and actress. Peeples is also famously known as Pam Fields, the mother of Emily Fields on hit TV drama, Pretty Little Liars, as Karen Taylor Winters on The Young and the Restless, and as Sydney Cooke on Walker, Texas Ranger.
Peeples was born in Hollywood, California, the daughter of Elizabeth Joan (née Rubic), a flamenco dancer, and Robert Eugene Peeples. She was raised in West Covina. Her maternal grandparents were immigrants from the Philippines, and were of Filipino, Spanish, French, and German descent. Her father, who was originally from Mississippi, was of Scots-Irish, English, Native American, and Italian ancestry. Peeples attended UCLA during which time she performed as Liberace's opening act in Las Vegas on weekends.
Peeples started her career as part of the performance group The Young Americans. In 1988 she hit #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart with "Trouble", which climbed to #35 on the Billboard Hot 100. Her most successful pop single is "Street Of Dreams", which hit #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1991. She made a music video in 1986 for "All You Can Dream", directed by Alan Bloom and conceptualized by Keith Williams, for the purposes of promoting the values of UCLA. She appeared in Prince's video for "Raspberry Beret". On February 4, 2009, Peeples presented Debbie Allen with a Lifetime Achievement Award at The Carnival: Choreographer's Ball 10th anniversary show.