Taraji P. Henson
Taraji P. Henson | |
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![]() Henson at the 2011 Heart Truth fashion show
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Born | Taraji Penda Henson September 11, 1970 Washington, D.C., United States |
Education | Bachelor of Fine Arts |
Alma mater | Howard University |
Occupation | Actress, singer |
Years active | 1995–present |
Children | 1 |
Taraji Penda Henson[1][2] (/təˈrɑːdʒi/ tə-RAH-jee; born September 11, 1970)[1][2] is an American actress and singer. Henson studied acting at Howard University and began her Hollywood career in guest-roles on several television shows before making her breakthrough in Baby Boy (2001). In 2005, she starred in Hustle & Flow and played Queenie in David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2010, she appeared in the comedy Date Night and co-starred in the remake of The Karate Kid. In 2012, Henson was in the large ensemble cast film Think Like A Man and reprised her role in its sequel.
Henson has also had an extensive career in television, having been a regular cast member on series such as The Division, Boston Legal and Eli Stone. From 2011 to 2013, she co-starred as Detective Jocelyn Carter in the CBS drama Person of Interest. She starred in the leading role of Tiffany Rubin, in the Lifetime Movie Network film Taken from Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story, for which she received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. As of 2015, she stars as Cookie Lyon on the FOX drama series Empire, for which she won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series - Drama in 2016, and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
Contents
Early life and education
Henson was born in southeast Washington, D.C., the daughter of Bernice Gordon, a corporate manager at Woodward & Lothrop, and Boris Lawrence Henson,[3] a janitor and metal fabricator.[4][5][6][7] Her first and middle names are of Swahili origin, "Taraji" meaning hope and "Penda" meaning love.[8][9] According to a mitochondrial DNA analysis, her matrilineal lineage can be traced to the Masa people of Cameroon.[10] She says that North Pole explorer Matthew Henson is "the brother of my great-great grandfather."[11]
Henson graduated from Oxon Hill High School in Oxon Hill, Maryland, in 1988.[1] She then attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University where she studied electrical engineering before transferring to Howard University to study drama.[4][7] To pay for college, she worked mornings as a secretary at The Pentagon and evenings as a singing-dancing waitress on a dinner-cruise ship, the Spirit of Washington.[12] She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1995.[13]
Career
Film
Henson's breakthrough role was in the 2001 comedy drama film Baby Boy which she portrayed Yvette, alongside singer Tyrese Gibson.[14]
In 2005, Henson was in the independent film Hustle & Flow as Shug, the love interest of Terrance Howard, who portrayed the male lead DJay. The film was nominated for two Academy awards, winning one. In 2008, she appeared opposite Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.[15] Henson plays the role of Queenie, Benjamin's mother, in a performance that led to an Academy award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.[16] She noted in an interview that, "Queenie is the embodiment of unconditional love."[8][15]
Henson was in Tyler Perry films The Family That Preys in 2008 and I Can Do Bad All By Myself in 2009. In 2010, she appeared in the remake of 1984 film of the same name The Karate Kid alongside Jaden Smith. The film was a commercial success.[17]
In 2011, she starred as Tiffany Rubin in the Lifetime Movie Network film Taken from Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story. The film was based on true events of the life of a New York woman Tiffany Rubin, whose son Kobe was abducted by his biological father to South Korea. Determined to bring her son back home, she is helped by an organization for lost children which his headed by Mark Miller, portrayed by Terry O'Quinn, and with a plan they are able bring her son back home.[18] Henson's portrayal as Tiffany Rubin received positive reviews[19] which earned her several award nominations including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.[20]
In 2012, Henson was in the large ensemble cast film Think Like A Man, which was based on Steve Harvey's 2009 book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. Henson reprised her role in the film's sequel Think Like a Man Too, which was released in June 2014.[21]
Television
Henson has guest-starred on several television shows, such as the WB Television Network's Smart Guy, playing the role of Monique (1997–98); the Fox series House in 2005; and CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in 2006. She also starred on an episode of Sister, Sister.[1]
Henson has also been a cast member on several television shows, including Lifetime Television's The Division and ABC's Boston Legal for one season. Her recurring appearances in television include the character Angela Scott on ABC's Eli Stone in December 2008. In 2011, Henson was cast in the CBS crime-suspense series Person of Interest.[22][23] In the Person of Interest November 20, 2013 episode "The Crossing", after co-starring for two and a half years, Henson's character Carter was killed as part of the series' new storyline direction.[24]
In February 2014, several months after her last episode of Person of Interest aired on CBS, Henson was hired by Fox to star in the new TV series pilot Empire, a musical drama set in the hip hop recording industry.[25] Henson plays Cookie Lyon opposite former Hustle & Flow costar Terrence Howard. Fox ordered the pilot to series in May 2014 and the TV series debuted on January 7, 2015 with positive reviews from critics and wide commercial success.[26][27] Her work as Cookie Lyon gave her widespread recognition and critical acclaim.[28][29][30] In July 2015, Henson was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, and she submitted show's Pilot for Emmy voting. In January 2016, Henson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for Empire.
Other work
Henson made her singing debut in Hustle & Flow; she provided the vocals for the Three 6 Mafia track "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp".[12] The song won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2006, giving Three 6 Mafia the distinction of becoming the first African American hip-hop act to win in that category.[31] Henson performed the song at the live Oscar ceremony on March 5, 2006, with the group.[32] Additionally, she performed the song "In My Daughter's Eyes" on the 2006 charity album Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars.[33]
Henson has made several appearances in music videos and television. For example, she starred in the rapper Common's music video "Testify" in 2005 as the wife of a soon to be convicted murderer.[34] She also appeared in Tyrese Gibson's music video Stay as his love interest.[35]
On March 16, 2015, she was a guest co-host on Live! with Kelly and Michael filling in for regular co-host Kelly Ripa.[36]
Personal life
Henson became pregnant during her junior year of college,[1] and gave birth in 1994[37] to her son, Marcell Johnson.[38][39] The father of her son, her high-school sweetheart William Lamar Johnson, was murdered in 1997.[40][41]
Controversy
In 2014, Henson said her son had been racially profiled by police and that his car had been illegally searched during a traffic stop that October 18 in Glendale, California. A video obtained by the Los Angeles Times showed Johnson had driven through a lighted crosswalk while a pedestrian was crossing, given verbal consent to search his vehicle, and admitted to smoking marijuana two hours before driving. Hash oil and marijuana were found inside his car.[39] Forty minutes after the video was made public,[39] Henson said in an Instagram message, "I would like to publicly apologize to the officer and the Glendale Police Department. A mother's job is not easy and neither is a police officer's."[42][43]
Activism
A supporter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Henson in January 2011 appeared nude in an ad for the I'd Rather Be Naked Than Wear Fur campaign.[44][45]
Henson joined PETA again for a 2013 campaign stating "Be an Angel for Animals". In the ad Henson poses with her family dog Uncle Willie. The ad highlights the issue that, "Chained dogs suffer day in and day out. They are cold, hungry, thirsty, vulnerable, and lonely. Keep them inside, where it's safe and warm."[46]
In February 2015, Henson posed in an ad for the NOH8 Campaign, which advocates for same-sex marriage.[47]
Filmography
Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2000 | The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle | Left-Wing Student | |
2000 | Satan's School for Girls | Paige | |
2001 | Baby Boy | Yvette | |
2002 | Book of Love: The Definitive Reason Why Men Are Dogs | Date #4/Ghetto Girl | |
2004 | Hair Show | Tiffany | |
2005 | Hustle & Flow | Shug | |
2005 | Four Brothers | Camille Mercer | |
2005 | Animal | Ramona | |
2006 | Something New | Nedra | |
2007 | Smokin' Aces | Sharice Watters | |
2007 | Talk to Me | Vernell Watson | |
2008 | The Family That Preys | Pam Evans | |
2008 | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button | Queenie | |
2009 | Not Easily Broken | Clarice Clark-Johnson | |
2009 | Hurricane Season | Dayna Collins | |
2009 | I Can Do Bad All By Myself | April Jones | |
2010 | Date Night | Detective Arroyo | |
2010 | The Karate Kid | Sherry Parker | |
2010 | Peep World | Mary | |
2010 | Once Fallen | Pearl | |
2011 | The Good Doctor | Nurse Theresa | |
2011 | Taken from Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story[48] | Tiffany Rubin | |
2011 | Larry Crowne | B'Ella | |
2011 | Laugh at My Pain | Taraji | |
2011 | From the Rough | Catana Starks | |
2012 | Think Like a Man | Lauren Harris | |
2013 | Madly Madagascar | Okapi | |
2014 | Think Like a Man Too[21] | Lauren Harris | |
2014 | No Good Deed | Terri Granger | |
2014 | Top Five | Herself |
Television
Year(s) | Title | Role(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1997–1998 | Smart Guy | Mo'Nique | 3 episodes |
1999 | Sister, Sister | Leslie | Episode: "Two's Company" |
1998 | ER | Elan | Episode: "Split Second" |
2001 | Murder She Wrote: The Last Free Man | Bess Pinckney | Movie |
2002–2004 | The Division | Inspector Washington | 14 episodes |
2004 | All of Us | Kim | Episode: "In Through the Out Door" |
2005 | House | Moira | Episode: "Spin" |
2006 | CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Christina | Episode: "I Like to Watch" |
2007–2008 | Boston Legal | Whitney Rome | 17 episodes |
2008 | Eli Stone | Angela Scott | 3 episodes in season 2 |
2010 | The Cleveland Show | Chanel Williams | Episode: "Brotherly Love" |
2011–2013 2015 |
Person of Interest | Detective Jocelyn "Joss" Carter | 55 episodes |
2014 | Season Of Love | Jackie | Lifetime movie |
2015–present | Empire | Cookie Lyon | Main role |
2015 | Saturday Night Live | Herself/host | 1 episode |
2015 | Live! with Kelly and Michael | Herself/co-host | 1 episode |
Awards and nominations
References
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- ↑ Veteran Actors, First Time Nominees
- ↑ NAACP nominates actress with local ties
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Interview with Tavis Smiley, December 19, 2008.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.. Approximately 4 minutes before the end of the show, Henson said that first name is Taraji and "means hope in Swahili" and that her middle name is "Penda, P-E-N-D-A, and that means love in Swahili".
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Note: Source spells son's first name "Marcel".
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- ↑ "Actress Taraji P. Henson Apologizes For Claiming Glendale Police Racially Profiled Her Son", CBS Los Angeles, March 27, 2015.
- ↑ "Taraji P Henson Goes Nude Again, This Time For PETA" January 27, 2011, Mrs Grapevine
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External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Taraji P. Henson. |
- Taraji P. Henson at the Internet Movie Database
- Taraji P. Henson at TV Guide
- Taraji P. Henson on Facebook
- Taraji P. Henson on TwitterLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Taraji P. Henson on Instagram
- Taraji P. Henson at TV.com
Preceded by | Saturday Night Live host April 11, 2015 |
Succeeded by Scarlett Johansson |
- Articles with hCards
- Articles with unsourced statements from July 2015
- Articles with unsourced statements from June 2015
- Commons category link is defined as the pagename
- 1970 births
- North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University alumni
- Actresses from Washington, D.C.
- American female singers
- African-American actresses
- American film actresses
- American television actresses
- American people of Cameroonian descent
- Howard University alumni
- LGBT rights activists from the United States
- Living people
- Animal rights advocates
- African-American female singers