Beyoncé

Beyoncé (birthname: Beyonce Giselle Knowles) is a global pop superstar, as close to royalty as pop music can claim (befitting her nickname “Queen Bey”)—but she has also carved out a film career in various media as both an actor and filmmaker.

During the period in which she was co-star of the hit girl group, Destiny’s Child, Beyoncé first appeared on screen in a tiny role “Girl #1) in the little-seen Beverly Hood (1999). After starring in the MTV-produced and aired musical, Carmen: A Hip Hopera (2001), with Mekhi Phifer, Beyoncé was cast as Beyoncé Knowles in her first proper movie acting role in New Line Cinema’s sequel, Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), directed by Jay Roach and starring lead writer Mike Myers, with Seth Green, Michael Caine, Michael York, Robert Wagner, and Verne Troyer, and grossing a strong worldwide $297 million (against $63 million costs).

Under Jonathan Lynn’s direction, Beyoncé co-starred with Cuba Gooding Jr., Mike Epps, Melba Moore, and Wendell Pierce in the musical comedy, The Fighting Temptations (2003), which lost money for MTV Films and Paramount Pictures. After appearing as herself in Paramount Classics’ documentary on the career of Jay-Z, Fade to Black (2004), Beyoncé again acted as Beyoncé Knowles in the Shawn Levy-directed reboot, The Pink Panther (2006), starring Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau, with Kevin Kline, Jean Reno, Emily Mortimer, and Henry Czerny, and making a profit for producing studios Columbia and MGM and distributors Sony Pictures and 20^th Century Fox.

Again as Beyoncé Knowles, she co-starred with Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy in writer-director Bill Condon’s big-screen version of the Supremes musical, Dreamgirls (2006), for which Jennifer Hudson won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her debut and the movie grossed $155.4 million worldwide. Beyoncé (as Beyoncé Knowles) co-starred with Adrien Brody and Jeffrey Wright in Cadillac Records (2008), in which she again played a major pop singer (in this case, Etta James), with a supporting cast of Gabrielle Union, Cedric the Entertainer, Emmanuelle Chriqui, and Yasin Bey, but earning a poor $9 million global gross.

Beyoncé concluded a period of film acting with the co-starring role in the Screen Gems/Sony Pictures thriller, Obsessed (2009), with Idris Elba, Ali Larter, Bruce McGill, Jerry O’Connell, and Christine Lahti, grossing nearly $74 million worldwide. Beyoncé took on two voice roles in animated movies over the next decade, first in the Blue Sky Studios/20^th Century Fox fantasy adventure, Epic (2013), which earned $268 million globally; next in Disney’s reboot of The Lion King (2019), directed by Jon Favreau and co-starring Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, John Kani, and James Earl Jones, and which was the second-highest-grossing movie of 2019 with a $1.66 billion worldwide take.

During this interesting and diverse period, Beyoncé also co-directed and co-wrote two unusual visual companion films (often referred to as “visual albums”)—Lemonade (2016) to accompany her album of the same title; and Black Is King (2020), designed to accompany Beyoncé’s album curation of music from The Lion King; both of them appeared on cable (HBO for Lemonade) and streaming (Disney+ for Black Is King).

Beyoncé alternated these projects with two concert movies that earned her first solo directorial credits: the Netflix-streamed Homecoming (2019), based on her groundbreaking Coachella concert performance; and then the theatrically-released (by AMC Theatres) concert movie, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé (2023), which she also wrote and produced, and featured Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, Kendrick Lamar, Diana Ross, Jay-Z, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Michelle Williams.