Taraji P. Henson

Actor / Producer / Director

Birthdate – September 11, 1970 (54 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 Lungren. 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.

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Personal Details

D.C.-born Taraji P. Henson was raised by parents Bernice Gordon and Boris Henson. Henson attended Oxon attended North Carolina Agriculture & Technology State University with an electrical engineering major and transferred to Howard University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1995. Her father Boris died in 2006. Henson was in a relationship with William Johnson from 1987 to 1994; the couple had one son, Marcell Johnson, in 1994. Henson was engaged to ex-NFL cornerback Kelvin Hayden in 2018 but called it off by 2020. Her height is 5’ 4”.

Filmography

Hidden Figures

Katherine G. Johnson (2016)

No Good Deed

Terry (2014)

Proud Mary

Mary (2018)

Ralph Breaks the Internet

Yesss (2018)

The Best of Enemies

Ann Atwater (2019)

Tyler Perry’s Acrimony

Melinda (2018)

What Men Want

Ali Davis (2019)

The Color Purple

Shug Avery (2023)

PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie

Victoria Vance (2023)

Minions: The Rise of Gru

Belle Bottom (2022)

Some Facts About Taraji P. Henson

Job-Jobs: To cover her tuition for Howard University, Taraji P. Henson held two jobs: working as a secretary at the Pentagon in the morning, and working as a singing-dancing waitress on a cruise ship at night.

First Movie Role: Henson’s first credit movie role is “Left-Wing Student” in The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000).

Animal Rights Activist: Taraji P. Henson posed nude for PETA’s “I’d Rather Be Naked Than Wear Fur” ad campaign in 2011, and participated in another PETA campaign in 2013.

 

 

 

Awards

Nominee, Best Supporting Actress, Academy Awards (2009); Four-time Nominee, Best Actress—Drama Series and TV movie/Best Guest Actress-Comedy Series, Emmy Awards (2011, 2015-2016, 2023); Winner, Best Actress—TV series, Golden Globes Awards (2016); Winner, Special Jury Mention, Locarno Film Festival (2001); Winner, Best Hero, MTV Movie + TV Awards (2017); Eleven-time Winner, Best Supporting Actress/Entertainer of the Year/Best Actress-Drama Series and TV Movie/Limited Series/Drama Special, NAACP Image Awards (2009, 2012, 2014-2019, 2022); Winner, Best Ensemble, National Board of Review Awards (2016); Winner, Ensemble Cast Award, Palm Springs Film Festival Awards (2017); Winner, Best Motion Picture Cast, Screen Actors Guild Awards (2017); Three-time Nominee, Best Supporting Actress/Best Cast, Screen Actors Guild Awards (2006, 2008-2009); Recipient, Hollywood Star Walk of Fame (2019).