Vanessa Bell Calloway

Vanessa Bell Calloway (née Bell), born March 20, 1957, in Cleveland, Ohio, is an American actress and dancer whose career has spanned Broadway, film, and television. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ohio University, where she became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Her early dance training included study with Alvin Ailey, George Faison, and Otis Sallid, as well as foundational training in Eric Hawkins technique under Joan Hartshorne, a former José Limón dancer. In the early 1970s, Calloway was a member of Cleveland's Karamu Dancers at Karamu House.

Calloway launched her professional career on Broadway as a dancer in Michael Bennett's original production of Dreamgirls, which began her Broadway tenure in 1981. She also appeared in the ensemble of the short-lived musical Bring Back Birdie, and her Broadway credits extend through 2023, including a role in Purlie Victorious. During the Dreamgirls period, she directed the music video "Angel Man" for soul singer Rhetta Hughes.

Her transition into acting began with the ABC daytime soap opera All My Children in 1985. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1986, she appeared in episodes of The Colbys, Falcon Crest, 227, China Beach, A Different World, and L.A. Law. Her film debut came with Number One with a Bullet in 1987, followed by her breakout supporting role as Princess Imani Izzi in the 1988 comedy Coming to America opposite Eddie Murphy. That same year she appeared in Death Spa. In 1990, she co-starred alongside Joe Morton in the ABC drama series Equal Justice.

Throughout the 1990s, Calloway accumulated a substantial body of film work. She voiced a leading role in the 1992 animated film Bebe's Kids and appeared in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) opposite Angela Bassett, The Inkwell (1994), Crimson Tide (1995) as Denzel Washington's character's wife, and Daylight (1996). On television, she held a leading role on the short-lived NBC sitcom Rhythm & Blues from 1992 to 1993. In 1995, she co-starred with James Earl Jones and Joe Morton in Under One Roof, a CBS prime time soap opera distinguished as the first drama series to feature African-American lead characters, for which she received an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series. She later starred alongside Larry Hagman in the CBS drama Orleans in 1997.

In the 2000s, Calloway had recurring roles on Boston Public and The District, and appeared in films including The Brothers (2001) and Biker Boyz (2003). She guest starred on numerous series, among them The Division, Strong Medicine, The Closer, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Dexter, Rizzoli & Isles, and Castle. From 2010 to 2011, she held a recurring role on the TNT medical drama Hawthorne, and beginning in 2011 she appeared in the Showtime comedy-drama Shameless. She later had a recurring role on This Is Us.

From 2016 to 2022, Calloway starred as Lady Ella Johnson, the widow of a pastor, in the Bounce TV prime time soap opera Saints & Sinners. Also in 2016, she portrayed Marian Shields Robinson, the future mother-in-law of President Barack Obama, in the comedy-drama film Southside with You, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, with Tika Sumpter playing Michelle Obama. In 2018, she appeared in Unbroken: Path to Redemption and Dragged Across Concrete. The following year, she played Harriet Tubman's mother in the biographical drama Harriet (2019). In 2021, she reprised her role as Princess Imani Izzi in Coming 2 America, the sequel to the 1988 original. In 2022, she joined the cast of the BET+ crime drama series The Black Hamptons. In 2023, Calloway made her directorial debut with the drama film Black Girl Erupted for BET Her. Across her career she has accumulated more than 150 film and television credits and received nine NAACP Image Award nominations.

In 1988, Calloway married anesthesiologist Dr. Anthony Calloway. They have two daughters, Ashley and Alexandra. Ashley appeared as one of the stars of the BET series Baldwin Hills, which ran from 2007 to 2009. In 2009, Calloway was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma, an early stage of breast cancer. She underwent two lumpectomies followed by a mastectomy and subsequent reconstructive surgery using tissue from her stomach. She described her experience in an essay published in Ebony magazine in October 2015, by which time she had been cancer-free for six years.