Angela Bassett

Angela Bassett married actor Courtney B. Vance on October 12, 1997. They first met while studying at the Yale School of Drama and later worked together in a 2005 production of His Girl Friday and in the final season of ER.

The couple welcomed twins, son Slater Josiah Vance and daughter Bronwyn Golden Vance, in 2006. The children were delivered by a surrogate.

Bassett was raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, by her mother, Betty Jane Gilbert, a social worker, alongside her sister D'nette. She became interested in acting after seeing a production of Of Mice and Men starring James Earl Jones during a high school trip.

She attended Yale University on an academic scholarship, earning a bachelor's degree in African American studies in 1980. She received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Yale School of Drama in 1983, where she studied under stage director Lloyd Richards. Her early stage work included August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Joe Turner's Come and Gone at the Yale Repertory Theatre.

Bassett made her film debut as a reporter in F/X in 1986 and gained wider attention with roles in Boyz n the Hood in 1991 and Malcolm X in 1992. In Malcolm X, directed by Spike Lee and starring Denzel Washington, she played Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X. She also portrayed Katherine Jackson in the television miniseries The Jacksons: An American Dream in 1992.

Her breakthrough came with What's Love Got to Do with It in 1993, in which she played singer Tina Turner. The performance earned Bassett an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy. She became the first African American recipient of that Golden Globe acting award.

Bassett continued to take prominent roles in films including Waiting to Exhale, Strange Days, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and Music of the Heart. She also portrayed Rosa Parks in the 2002 television film The Rosa Parks Story, earning a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.

Bassett played Dr. Catherine Banfield during the final season of ER from 2008 to 2009. She later appeared in several seasons of the FX anthology series American Horror Story, including Coven as Marie Laveau and Freak Show as Desiree Dupree. Her performances in the series brought two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.

In 2013, she portrayed Coretta Scott King in the television film Betty & Coretta. She also played Secret Service director Lynne Jacobs in Olympus Has Fallen and reprised the role in London Has Fallen. Bassett made her directorial debut with the television film Whitney and directed episodes of American Horror Story.

Bassett began starring as LAPD patrol sergeant Athena Grant in the procedural drama 9-1-1 in 2018. She also became an executive producer on the series and on its spin-off, 9-1-1: Lone Star.

Bassett joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Queen Ramonda, the mother of T'Challa, in Black Panther in 2018. She reprised the role in Avengers: Endgame in 2019 and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in 2022.

Her performance in Wakanda Forever won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Critics' Choice Award. It also earned her a second Academy Award nomination, making her the first actor nominated for an Academy Award for an acting performance in a Marvel Studios film.

Her later credits include voice roles in Soul, Wendell & Wild, and Orion and the Dark, as well as appearances in Gunpowder Milkshake, Damsel, and Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. She received an Academy Honorary Award at the Governors Awards in recognition of her career.