Vanessa Redgrave is an English actress of stage, screen, and television, and a political activist. Called "The Greatest Actress of our Time" by Tennessee Williams, Redgrave is a 2003 American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee, and received the 2010 BAFTA Fellowship.
Cicely L. Tyson is an American actress and former fashion model. In a career spanning more than seven decades, she became known for her portrayal of strong African-American women. Tyson is the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards, four Black Reel Awards, one Screen Actor Guild Award, one Tony Award and an honorary Academy Award.
Diahann Carroll was an American actress, singer, model, and activist. She rose to prominence in some of the earliest major studio films to feature black casts, including Carmen Jones (1954) and Porgy and Bess (1959). In 1962, Carroll won a Tony Award for best actress, a first for an African American woman, for her role in the Broadway musical No Strings.
Allison Brooks Janney is an American actress. A prolific character actress, Janney is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award and seven Primetime Emmy Awards.
Stockard Channing is an American actress. She is known for playing Betty Rizzo in the film Grease (1978) and First Lady Abbey Bartlet on the NBC television series The West Wing (1999–2006). She is also known for originating the role of Ouisa Kittredge in the stage and film versions of Six Degrees of Separation, for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play and the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Phylicia Rashād is an American actress, singer and stage director. She is known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show (1984–92), which earned her Emmy Award nominations in 1985 and 1986. She was dubbed "The Mother Of The Black Community“ at the 2010 NAACP Image Awards.
Christine Jane Baranski is an American actress, singer, and producer. She is a 15-time Emmy Award nominee, winning once in 1995 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Maryann Thorpe in the sitcom Cybill (1995–98). Baranski has received further critical acclaim for her performance as Diane Lockhart in the legal drama series The Good Wife (2009–2016) and its spinoff series The Good Fight (2017–present), as well as her recurring role as Dr. Beverly Hofstadter in the sitcom The Big Bang Theory (2009–2019) for which she received four Emmy nominations. She is also known for her roles in numerous successful TV films, such as her portrayal of Kate in To Dance with the White Dog (1993), Prunella Stickler in Eloise at the Plaza, and Eloise at Christmastime, and Amanda in Who Is Simon Miller? (2011).
Sanaa McCoy Lathan is an American actress. As a voice actress, from 2009 to 2013, she voiced Donna Tubbs in The Cleveland Show and in all concurrent and subsequent Family Guy appearances. She has starred in many films, including The Best Man (1999) and its 2013 sequel, The Best Man Holiday. Her other film credits include Love & Basketball (2000), Brown Sugar (2002), Alien vs. Predator (2004), Something New (2006), The Family That Preys (2008), Contagion (2011), and Now You See Me 2 (2016).
Renée Elise Goldsberry is an American actress, singer and songwriter, known for originating the role of Angelica Schuyler in the Broadway musical Hamilton, for which she won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Her other Broadway credits include Nettie Harris in the original Broadway cast of The Color Purple, Mimi Márquez in Rent, and Nala in The Lion King. She has portrayed many roles on television, including Geneva Pine on The Good Wife, and Evangeline Williamson on One Life to Live, for which she received two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series nominations.
Sophie Okonedo is a British film, theatre and television actress. She began her film career in the British coming-of-age drama Young Soul Rebels (1991) before appearing in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) and Stephen Frears's Dirty Pretty Things (2002).
Jenifer Jeanette Lewis is an American actress, singer and activist. She began her career appearing in Broadway musicals and worked as a back-up singer for Bette Midler before appearing in films Beaches (1988) and Sister Act (1992). Lewis is known for playing roles of mothers in the films What's Love Got to Do With It (1993), Poetic Justice (1993), The Preacher's Wife (1996), The Brothers (2001), Think Like a Man and in the sequel Think Like a Man Too (2014), Baggage Claim (2013), and The Wedding Ringer (2015), as well as in The Temptations TV miniseries (1998).
Beulah Elizabeth Richardson, known professionally as Beah Richards, was an American actress of stage, screen, and television. She was also a poet, playwright, and author.
Tamara Tunie is an American film, stage, and television actress, director, and producer. She is best known for her roles as attorney Jessica Griffin on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns, and as medical examiner Melinda Warner in the NBC police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
L. Scott Caldwell is an American actress known for her role as Rose on Lost.
Jurnee Diana Smollett-Bell is an American actress. Smollett-Bell began her career as a child actress appearing on television sitcoms, including On Our Own (1994–1995). She received critical acclaim and Critic's Choice Award for playing Eve in the 1997 independent drama film Eve's Bayou.
Anika Noni Rose is an American actress and singer known for her Tony Award-winning performance in the Broadway production of Caroline, or Change and her starring role as Lorrell Robinson in the 2006 Academy Award winning film Dreamgirls. She also voiced Tiana, Disney's first African-American princess in Walt Disney Pictures' 2009 animated fantasy film The Princess and the Frog. In 2014, Rose played the role of Beneatha Younger in the Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun, for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She was named a Disney Legend in 2011.
Irene Worth, CBE was an American stage and screen actress who became one of the leading stars of the British and American theatre. She pronounced her given name with three syllables: "I-REE-nee".
Ruth Wilson is an English actress. She is known for her performances in Suburban Shootout (2005), Jane Eyre (2006), as Alice Morgan in the BBC psychological crime drama Luther, as Alison Lockhart in the Showtime drama The Affair (2014–2018), as the titular character in Mrs Wilson (2018), and as Marisa Coulter in the BBC/HBO fantasy series His Dark Materials (2019–present). Her film credits include The Lone Ranger (2013), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016), and Dark River (2017).
Kenny Leon is an American director notable for his work on Broadway and in regional theater. In 2014, he won the Tony Award for Best Director of a Play for A Raisin in the Sun.
A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes. The story tells of a black family's experiences in south Chicago, as they attempt to improve their financial circumstances with an insurance payout following the death of the father. The New York Drama Critics' Circle named it the best play of 1959, and in recent years publications such as The Independent and Time Out have listed it among the best plays ever written.
