Sanaa Lathan

Sanaa McCoy Lathan was born on September 19, 1971, in New York City, to actress and dancer Eleanor McCoy and film director Stan Lathan. She earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley, before going on to complete a master's degree in drama at Yale University, where she studied under Earle R. Gister and performed in Shakespeare productions. After her training at Yale, Lathan built early stage credits off-Broadway and on the Los Angeles stage before transitioning into television, with appearances in episodes of In the House, Family Matters, NYPD Blue, and Moesha.

Lathan's film career gained traction in 1998 when she appeared as the mother of Wesley Snipes's title character in Blade. The following year she appeared in The Best Man alongside Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Harold Perrineau Jr., and Morris Chestnut, a film that ranked among the top ten highest-grossing African American films in history and earned her an NAACP Image Award nomination. She and Diggs were reunited in the 2002 romantic comedy Brown Sugar, which also starred Queen Latifah and Mos Def, and again earned her an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture. Her performance in Gina Prince-Bythewood's Love & Basketball in 2000 brought her the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actress, and a BET Award. That same year she appeared in the HBO film Disappearing Acts, based on Terry McMillan's novel, opposite Snipes, earning an Essence Award for Best Actress. In 2000, she also appeared in the Off-Broadway production of The Vagina Monologues alongside Teri Garr and Julianna Margulies.

Lathan's Broadway career spans 2004 to 2008. In 2004 she participated in The 24 Hour Plays, and that same year she starred in the Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun alongside Sean Combs, Audra McDonald, and Phylicia Rashad, portraying Beneatha Younger. The performance earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play as well as a Theatre World Award in 2004. She reprised the role of Beneatha Younger in ABC's 2008 television film adaptation of the play.

Also in 2004, Lathan took the lead role of Alexa "Lex" Woods in Alien vs. Predator, which grossed over $171 million worldwide. In 2006 she co-starred with Simon Baker in the romantic comedy Something New and appeared in the fourth season of the television series Nip/Tuck as Michelle Landau. Her 2008 film credits include The Family That Preys, directed by Tyler Perry and also starring Alfre Woodard and Kathy Bates, in which she played the role of Andrea.

Beginning in 2009, Lathan voiced Donna Tubbs on The Cleveland Show and subsequently in Family Guy following the former series' cancellation, a role she held through 2013. That year she also co-starred with Matthew Broderick in Wonderful World. In 2010, she returned to the stage in an all-Black production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Novello Theatre in London. Her 2011 film work included Steven Soderbergh's ensemble thriller Contagion, featuring Matt Damon, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishburne, as well as the psychological thriller Repentance with Anthony Mackie and Forest Whitaker. She also played series regular Mona Fredricks in the second season of the Starz series Boss, starring Kelsey Grammer.

In 2013, Lathan reprised her role as Robyn in The Best Man Holiday, the sequel to The Best Man. Subsequent film credits include Now You See Me 2 in 2016 and American Assassin in 2017. She joined the main cast of The Affair for its fourth and fifth seasons and starred in the Netflix film Nappily Ever After. In 2021, she was cast as Lisa Arthur, a high-profile New York lawyer, in the third season of Succession, a role that earned her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in 2022. That same year, she made her directorial debut with the film adaptation of Angie Thomas's novel On the Come Up, which premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. She has also voiced Catwoman on the animated series Harley Quinn.