Regina King

King married Ian Alexander Sr. on April 23, 1997, after welcoming their son, Ian Alexander Jr., in 1996. The couple divorced in 2007. Ian Alexander Jr., who worked as a disc jockey and recording artist, died by suicide on January 21, 2022, at the age of 26.

Following the loss of her son, King has spoken publicly about the realities of grief, the complexities of depression, and the vital need for mental health awareness. Her sister Reina King is also an actress, and both sisters' first names translate to Queen (Regina in Latin and Reina in Spanish).

Regina Rene King was born on January 15, 1971, in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in the View Park-Windsor Hills neighborhood. Her mother, Gloria Jean, worked as a special education teacher, and her father, Thomas Henry King Jr., was an electrician. Her parents divorced when she was eight years old. King initially trained in ballet and jazz dance before accompanying her younger sister Reina to acting classes, where she studied under acting coach Betty Bridges.

King graduated from Westchester High School in 1989 and attended the University of Southern California for two years to study communications before dedicating herself full-time to acting. Her professional career began in 1985 when she was cast at age 14 as Brenda Jenkins on the television sitcom 227, a role she played throughout its five-season run until 1990.

Following 227, King transitioned into feature films, collaborating with director John Singleton on Boyz n the Hood (1991), Poetic Justice (1993), and Higher Learning (1995). In 1995, she appeared as Dana Jones in the comedy Friday. She gained wider commercial recognition in 1996 playing Marcee Tidwell opposite Cuba Gooding Jr. and Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire, followed by roles in Enemy of the State (1998) and How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998).

Throughout the 2000s, King appeared in comedies such as Down to Earth (2001), Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2003), Daddy Day Care (2003), and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005). She earned praise for portraying backup singer Margie Hendrix in the Ray Charles biographical film Ray (2004). In 2018, King starred as Sharon Rivers in Barry Jenkins's adaptation of James Baldwin's novel If Beale Street Could Talk, a performance that earned her the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her later film credits include the western The Harder They Fall (2021) and the biopic Shirley (2024), where she portrayed politician Shirley Chisholm.

King established a prominent television career across multiple genres. Between 2005 and 2014, she voiced the central characters Huey Freeman and Riley Freeman in the animated series The Boondocks. She played Sandra Palmer in the sixth season of 24 (2007) and starred as Detective Lydia Adams on the TNT police drama Southland from 2009 to 2013, winning multiple NAACP Image Awards for her work.

From 2015 to 2017, King starred in ABC's anthology series American Crime, winning two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. She won her third Primetime Emmy Award in 2018 for her performance as Latrice Butler in the Netflix miniseries Seven Seconds. In 2019, King starred as Angela Abar (Sister Night) in the HBO limited series Watchmen, earning critical acclaim and her fourth Primetime Emmy Award.

King began expanding into directing in 2013, directing the television movie Let the Church Say Amen and an episode of Southland. Over the following years, she directed episodes of major television shows, including Being Mary Jane, Scandal, Animal Kingdom, The Catch, This Is Us, Shameless, The Good Doctor, and Insecure.

In 2020, King made her feature directorial debut with One Night in Miami..., an adaptation of the stage play depicting a fictionalized meeting between Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, making King the first African American woman director featured in the festival's lineup. Her direction earned her a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Director. She also directed episodes and served as an executive producer for the Netflix limited series A Man in Full.