Dana Elaine Owens, known professionally as Queen Latifah, is an American rapper, singer, and actress. She has received various accolades, including a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two NAACP Image Awards, in addition to a nomination for an Academy Award. In 2006, she became the first hip hop artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Flashdance is a 1983 American romantic drama dance film directed by Adrian Lyne and starring Jennifer Beals as a passionate young dancer, Alex Owens, who aspires to become a professional ballerina, alongside Michael Nouri, who plays her boyfriend and the owner of the steel mill where she works by day in Pittsburgh. It was the first collaboration of producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and the presentation of some sequences in the style of music videos was an influence on other 1980s films including Footloose, Purple Rain, and Top Gun, Simpson and Bruckheimer's most famous production. It was also one of Lyne's first major film releases, building on television commercials. Alex's elaborate dance sequences were shot using body doubles.
I Am Sam is a 2001 American drama film co-written and directed by Jessie Nelson. It stars Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dianne Wiest, Dakota Fanning, Elle Fanning, Richard Schiff, Loretta Devine and Laura Dern.
Garden State is a 2004 American romantic comedy-drama film, written and directed by Zach Braff, and starring him, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard and Ian Holm. The film centers on Andrew Largeman (Braff), a 26-year-old actor/waiter who returns to his hometown in New Jersey after his mother dies. Braff based the film on his real life experiences. It was filmed in April and May 2003 and released on July 28, 2004. New Jersey was the main setting and primary shooting location.
Sophie Okonedo is a British actress and narrator. The recipient of a Tony Award, she has been nominated for an Academy Award, three BAFTA TV Awards, an Emmy Award, two Laurence Olivier Awards, and a Golden Globe Award. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2019, both for services to drama.
Walk the Line is a 2005 American biographical drama film directed by James Mangold. The screenplay, written by Mangold and Gill Dennis, is based on two autobiographies by the American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash: Man in Black: His Own Story in His Own Words (1975) and Cash: The Autobiography (1997). The film follows Cash's early life, his romance with the singer June Carter, his ascent in the country music scene, and his drug addiction. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as Cash, Reese Witherspoon as Carter, Ginnifer Goodwin as Cash's first wife Vivian Liberto, and Robert Patrick as Cash's father.
The Secret Life of Bees is a novel by the American author Sue Monk Kidd. Set in 1964, it is a coming-of-age story about loss, betrayal, and the interracial landscape of the civil rights era of the American South. The book received critical acclaim and was a New York Times bestseller. It won the 2004 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards (Paperback), and was nominated for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.
Kimberly Elise Trammel is an American actress. She made her feature-film debut in Set It Off (1996), and later received critical acclaim for her performance in Beloved (1998).
Charlotte's Web is a 2006 fantasy film based on the 1952 novel by E. B. White. Directed by Gary Winick and written by Susannah Grant and Karey Kirkpatrick, it is the second film adaptation of E. B. White's book, and live-action/CGI remake of Paramount's 1973 animated feature film produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The film stars Dakota Fanning, Kevin Anderson, and Beau Bridges, with voices provided by Dominic Scott Kay, Julia Roberts, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Oprah Winfrey, Thomas Haden Church, André Benjamin, Cedric the Entertainer, Kathy Bates, Reba McEntire, Robert Redford, and Sam Shepard as the narrator. Danny Elfman composed the film's score.
Brown Sugar is a 2002 American romantic comedy film written by Michael Elliott and Rick Famuyiwa, directed by Famuyiwa, and starring Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan. The film is a story of lifelong friends, A&R Andre and Editor-in-Chief Sidney. The two can attribute their friendship and the launch of their careers to a single, seminal childhood moment – the day they discovered hip-hop on a New York street corner. Now some 15 years later, as they lay down the tracks toward their futures, hip-hop isn't the only thing that keeps them coming back to that moment on the corner.
Sue Monk Kidd is an American writer from Sylvester, Georgia. She is best known for her historical novels, which frequently deal with themes of race, feminism, and religion and include The Secret Life of Bees and The Book of Longings.
The 37th NAACP Image Awards ceremony, presented by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), honored the best in film, television, music of 2005 and took place on February 25, 2006, at the Shrine Auditorium. The show was televised live on Fox, March 3 at 8 p.m. EST and hosted by Cuba Gooding Jr.
Presenting Lily Mars is a 1943 American musical comedy film directed by Norman Taurog, produced by Joe Pasternak, starring Judy Garland and Van Heflin, and based on the 1933 novel by Booth Tarkington. The film is often cited as Garland's first film playing an adult role. However, the issue is complicated by the delay in this film's release caused by reshooting the finale, and Garland's brutal work schedule—She was filming Girl Crazyand For Me and My Gal at the same time. Also, in Little Nellie Kelly, released in 1940, she plays her character's mother, dying in childbirth. Tommy Dorsey and Bob Crosby appear with their orchestras in this Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production.
Alison Mary Owen is an English film producer. Her credits as a producer include Moonlight and Valentino (1995), Elizabeth (1998), Sylvia (2003), Shaun of the Dead (2004), Proof (2005), The Other Boleyn Girl (2007), Brick Lane (2007), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), Tulip Fever (2017) and Back to Black (2024).
Hannah Dakota Fanning is an American actress. She rose to prominence as a child actress at the age of seven for playing the daughter of an intellectually challenged man in the drama film I Am Sam (2001), for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, making her the youngest nominee in SAG history. Fanning had further roles as a child actress in Taken (2002), Uptown Girls (2003), The Cat in the Hat (2003), Man on Fire (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), Charlotte's Web (2006), The Secret Life of Bees (2008) and the lead voice role in Coraline (2009).
Mary Willa "Mamie" Gummer is an American actress. She starred in the title role of The CW series Emily Owens, M.D. (2012–2013), and played the recurring role of Nancy Crozier on The Good Wife (2010–2015) and its spin-off, The Good Fight (2018). She has also appeared in the films Evening (2007), Side Effects (2013), Cake (2014), and Ricki and the Flash (2015). Gummer was nominated for the 2016 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play for the original production of Ugly Lies the Bone. She is the daughter of Don Gummer and Meryl Streep.
Shelter is a 2007 American romantic drama film produced by JD Disalvatore and directed and written by Jonah Markowitz. It stars Trevor Wright, Brad Rowe, and Tina Holmes. It was the winner of "Outstanding Film–Limited Release" at the 2009 GLAAD Media Awards, Best New Director and Favorite Narrative Feature at the Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, and the People's Choice Award for Best Feature at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival. Shelter represents the feature directorial debut of Markowitz.
Skin is a 2008 biographical drama film directed by Anthony Fabian. It is based on the book When She Was White: The True Story of a Family Divided by Race by Judith Stone, and the life of Sandra Laing, a South African woman born to white parents, who was classified as "Coloured" during the apartheid era, presumably due to a genetic case of atavism.
Jumping the Broom is a 2011 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Salim Akil and produced by Tracey E. Edmonds, Elizabeth Hunter, T. D. Jakes, Glendon Palmer, and Curtis Wallace.
The Secret Life of Bees is a stage musical with a book by Lynn Nottage, music by Duncan Sheik and lyrics by Susan Birkenhead. The musical premiered Off-Broadway in 2019 to critical acclaim, winning the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical, along with Best New Musical nominations from the Drama Desk Awards, Lucille Lortel Awards, and the Drama League Awards.
