Taraji P. Henson

Taraji Penda Henson is an American actress, producer, author, and mental health advocate born on September 11, 1970, in Southeast Washington, D.C. Her parents were Bernice Gordon Henson, a corporate manager at Woodward & Lothrop, and Boris Lawrence Henson, a janitor and metal fabricator. She was raised Catholic, and her first and middle names derive from Swahili, meaning "hope" and "love" respectively. A mitochondrial DNA analysis traced her matrilineal lineage to the Masa people of Cameroon, and she has noted a familial connection to North Pole explorer Matthew Henson. She graduated from Oxon Hill High School in Oxon Hill, Maryland, in 1988, and initially enrolled at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University to study electrical engineering before transferring to Howard University to pursue drama. To finance her education, she worked mornings as a Pentagon secretary and evenings as a singing-dancing waitress aboard the Spirit of Washington dinner-cruise ship.

Henson earned her SAG membership card in the early 1990s through background work before landing her first prominent film role in the 2001 comedy-drama Baby Boy, playing Yvette opposite Tyrese Gibson. Her profile rose considerably with the 2005 independent film Hustle & Flow, in which she portrayed Shug, the love interest of DJay, played by Terrence Howard. She made her singing debut in that film, which received two Academy Award nominations and won one. In 2008, she appeared alongside Brad Pitt in David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button as Queenie, Benjamin's adoptive mother, earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. That same year she appeared in Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys, followed by I Can Do Bad All By Myself in 2009. In 2010, she joined the commercially successful remake of The Karate Kid with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan.

Her television work expanded steadily throughout this period. She guest-starred on series including Smart Guy, House, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Sister, Sister, and held recurring roles on The Division, Boston Legal, and Eli Stone. In 2011, she was cast as Joss Carter in the CBS crime-suspense drama Person of Interest, a role she held until her character was killed off in the November 2013 episode "The Crossing." That same year, she starred as Tiffany Rubin in the Lifetime film Taken from Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story, a performance that earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. She also appeared in the ensemble comedy Think Like a Man in 2012, reprising her role in the 2014 sequel Think Like a Man Too.

Henson's career reached a new level of visibility in 2015 when she was cast as Cookie Lyon in the Fox musical drama Empire, opposite her Hustle & Flow co-star Terrence Howard. The series debuted on January 7, 2015, and Henson became the first African-American woman to win the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series for the role. In January 2016, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series Drama, becoming only the third African-American actress to receive that honor, following Gail Fisher in 1972 and Regina Taylor in 1992. She received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for the role in both 2015 and 2016. At the 46th NAACP Image Awards, she was named 2015 Entertainer of the Year. Empire ran from 2015 to 2020, and a spin-off series centered on her character was subsequently reported to be in development.

Also in 2016, Henson starred in Hidden Figures as mathematician Katherine Johnson, a film that earned three Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. That year she also published her New York Times bestselling autobiography, Around the Way Girl, and Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world, an honor the publication repeated in 2024. In 2019, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her subsequent film credits include Proud Mary, Tyler Perry's Acrimony, Ralph Breaks the Internet, What Men Want, The Best of Enemies, and The Color Purple in 2023. A guest appearance on the ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary earned her an additional Emmy nomination in 2023.

On Broadway, Henson appeared in Joe Turner's Come and Gone in 2026. The production received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Play, both in 2024. Her stage work, combined with her extensive film and television career, has earned her accolades that include a Golden Globe Award and nominations for an Academy Award and six Emmy Awards, in addition to her Tony Award recognition.