Angela Bassett | Biography, TV Series, Movies, Black Panther, Awards, Husband, & Facts (2024)

Angela Bassett (born August 16, 1958, New York, New York, U.S.) is an American actress best known for portraying Black women who made history, including singerTina Turner and civil rights activists Rosa Parks and Betty Shabazz, the wife of African American leaderMalcolm X.

Bassett was born in New York, New York, and raised by an aunt in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. When Bassett was about five, she and her sister moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, to live with their mother, who had separated from their father. While in high school Bassett sawJohn Steinbeck’s playOf Mice and Men, starringJames Earl Jones, and decided that she wanted to become an actor. She attended Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, receiving a bachelor’s degree (1980) in African American studies and a master’s degree (1983) from the Yale School of Drama. While at Yale she met Courtney B. Vance, a fellow actor, and the two married in 1997.

Bassett’s career began onstage in the mid-1980s. Her notable performances include parts inAugust Wilson’splays Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which was her Broadway debut,andJoe Turner’s Come and Goneat the Yale Repertory Theatre. About the same time she had several small roles on television, including on series such asSpenser: For Hire,The Cosby Show, andA Man Called Hawk. In 1986 she made her movie debut as a reporter in the action thrillerF/X. She later played a flight attendant in the action comedyKindergarten Cop(1990).

In 1991 Bassett played a small but powerful role as a single mother trying to keep her son out of a gang in director John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood. It was the first of several movies she appeared in alongsideLaurence Fishburne. In 1992 she performed in her biggest role yet, starring oppositeDenzel Washingtonin directorSpike Lee’s Malcolm X. That same year she appeared as singerMichael Jackson’s mother, Katherine, in the TV miniseriesThe Jacksons: An American Dream. Bassett’s portrayal of singer Tina Turner inWhat’s Love Got to Do with It(1993) received critical and popular praise, and she was nominated for anAcademy Awardfor best actress and won a Golden Globe for best actress in a motion picture musical or comedy. Movies such as the highly acclaimed romantic dramediesWaiting to Exhale(1995) andHow Stella Got Her Groove Back(1998), both adapted fromTerry McMillanbooks, showcased Bassett’s versatility.

Bassett’s work from the early 21st century includes the crime dramaThe Score(2001), withRobert De Niro, and the TV movieThe Rosa Parks Story(2002), in which she played the title character. After having a recurring role on the TV seriesAliasin 2005, Bassett starred in the family dramaAkeelah and the Bee(2006), portraying the mother of a girl attempting to become a national spelling champion. In the biographyNotorious(2009) Bassett played the mother of Christopher Wallace, the rapper better known by the stage name the Notorious B.I.G. In 2008–09 she had a recurring role on the popular medical drama seriesER. She occasionally took on stage roles, including a 2005 production ofHis Girl Fridaywith Vance and a 2006 performance of the Wilson playFences.

Bassett’s later work was just as varied. On the big screen she appeared in the dramedyJumping the Broom(2011) and the romantic action comedyThis Means War(2012) before playing the director of the U.S. Secret Service in the action thrillerOlympus Has Fallen(2013) and its sequelLondon Has Fallen(2016). Her other films include Lee’s crime dramedyChi-Raq(2015) and the action adventureMission: Impossible—Fallout(2018). Bassett also played the mother of the character T’Challa (theBlack Panther) in theMarvel Cinematic Universe’s action adventuresBlack Panther(2018),Avengers: Endgame(2019), andBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever(2022). For the latter she won a Golden Globe for best performance by an actress in a supporting role in any motion picture and received her second Oscar nomination.

Meanwhile, from 2013 to 2018 Bassett appeared on the television seriesAmerican Horror Story, and she added another popular television role in 2018 when she began playing a Los Angeles police officer in9-1-1. She also served as an executive producer on that show and, beginning in 2020, on its spin-off,9-1-1: Lone Star. Over her career Bassett lent her voice to many animated movies, includingMeet the Robinsons(2007),Curious George 3: Back to the Jungle(2015), andSoul(2020). Bassett and Vance wrote, with Hilary Beard, the memoirFriends: A Love Story(2007).