Taraji P. Henson
Birthdate: September 11, 1970 (55 Years Old)
Birthplace: Washington D.C., USA
Taraji P. Henson (birthname: Taraji Penda Henson) is one of the trailblazers for the new generation of Black female actors in Hollywood, a high-energy performer of great range and intensity as exemplified in her vivid turn as Cookie on the long-running Fox TV series, Empire (2015-2020).
After five years of TV guest appearances on such network hits as ER (1998) and Felicity (1998-1999), Henson’s first significant movie role was in John Singleton’s Locarno festival award-winning Baby Boy (2001), with Tyrese Gibson, Snoop Dogg, and Ving Rhames.
Henson’s first triumph was in the Sundance indie discovery, Craig Brewer’s Hustle & Flow (2005), with Terrence Howard and Anthony Anderson. Henson, one of Singleton’s favorite actors, rejoined him for the crime drama, Four Brothers (2005), with Mark Wahlberg and Tyrese Gibson, followed by Joe Carnahan’s cynical action movie starring Ben Affleck, Smokin’ Aces (2006), with Andy Garcia, Alicia Keys, Ray Liotta, and Ryan Reynolds.
Taraji P. Henson gained great acclaim—and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, one of 13--for the role of Queenie in David Fincher’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), with Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, and Mahershala Ali. Henson joined Hong Kong stars Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith for the hit revival, The Karate Kid (2010).
Henson expanded her portfolio to include producing No Good Deed (2014), with Idris Elba. She executed the same combination of star-executive producer with Babak Nafaji’s thriller Proud Mary (2018), with Danny Glover and Xander Berkeley, and Neil Shankman’s What Men Want (2019), with Tracy Morgan and Erykah Badu.
Taraji P. Henson’s biggest role to date was her portrayal of Black female NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson in Theodore Melfi’s Hidden Figures (2016), with Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kevin Costner, and Kirsten Dunst, which was nominated for three Oscars, including Best Picture, and won the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Cast.
Taraji P. Henson joined the Despicable Me voice cast for her role of Belle Bottom in Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), with Steve Carell, Michelle Yeoh, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Pierre Coffin, and Dolph Lundgren. In recent years, Henson has performed as a voice actor in animated features, including Disney Animation’s Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) and the Canadian-made PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (2023).
Taraji P. Henson collaborated with the gifted Canadian director Michael Dowse for the action comedy, Coffee & Kareem (2020), with Ed Helms, and then performed two consecutive voice roles in animated features: First, as Belle Bottom in Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), with Steve Carell, Pierre Coffin, Lucy Lawless, Michelle Yeoh, and Danny Trejo; and then in PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (2023), co-written and directed by Cal Brunker, with Henson joining Mckenna Grace, Marsai Martin, Kim Kardashian, Chris Rock, Serena Williams, James Marsden, and Kristen Bell, and which grossed over $197 million for Paramount/Nickelodeon.
Playing the role of Shug Avery, Henson joined the ensemble of Danielle Brooks, Fantasia Barrino, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, H.E.R., Halle Bailey, Phylicia Pearl Mpasi, and Jon Batiste in director Blitz Bazawule’s and writer Marcus Gardley’s screen version of the musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel, The Color Purple (2023). Henson starred in writer-director Alessandro Camon’s cop-crime movie, Time Alone (date to be announced), with Clayton Cardenas.
Personal life
Taraji P. Henson Movies
Actor
Previous (16)
- 2023 |
The Color Purple
asShug Avery
A woman faces many hardships in her life, but ultimately finds extraordinary strength and hope in the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.
- 2023 |
PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie
asVictoria Vance
A magical meteor falls in Adventure City and gives the PAW Patrol superpowers, transforming them into the Mighty Pups. But they face their most powerful challenge when Humdinger teams up with a mad scientist to steal their powers.
- 2022 |
Minions: The Rise of Gru
asBelle Bottom
The untold story of one twelve-year-old's dream to become the world's greatest supervillain.
- 2019 |
The Best of Enemies
asAnn Atwater
Civil rights activist Ann Atwater faces off against C.P. Ellis, Exalted Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan, in 1971 Durham, North Carolina over the issue of school integration.
- 2019 |
What Men Want
asAli Davis
A woman is boxed out by the male sports agents in her profession, but gains an unexpected edge over them when she develops the ability to hear men's thoughts.
- 2018 |
Proud Mary
asMary
Mary is a hit woman working for an organized crime family in Boston, whose life is completely turned around when she meets a young boy whose path she crosses when a professional hit goes bad.
- 2018 |
Ralph Breaks the Internet
asYesss
On a quest to save the video game 'Sugar Rush' and to find a replacement, Ralph and his best friend Vanellope travel to the World Wide Web through a Wi-Fi router they find at the arcade.
- 2018 |
- 2016 |
Hidden Figures
asKatherine G. Johnson
Three female African-American mathematicians play a pivotal role in astronaut John Glenn's launch into orbit. Meanwhile, they also have to deal with racial and gender discrimination at work.
- 2016 |
- 2014 |
No Good Deed
asTerry
An unstable escaped convict terrorizes a woman who is alone with her two children.
- 2014 |
Think Like a Man Too
asLauren
All the couples are back for a wedding in Las Vegas, but plans for a romantic weekend go awry when their various misadventures get them into some compromising situations that threaten to derail the big event.
- 2012 |
Think Like a Man
asLauren
Four friends conspire to turn the tables on their women when they discover the ladies have been using Steve Harvey's relationship advice against them.
- 2010 |
The Karate Kid
asSherry Parker
Work causes a single mother to move to China with her young son; in his new home, the 12-year-old boy embraces Kung Fu, taught to him by a master.
- -- | as Melinda
- -- | as Melinda
