Taraji P. Henson
Birthdate: September 11, 1970
Birthplace: Washington D.C., USA
A high-energy actor of great range and intensity as exemplified in her vivid turn as Cookie on the long-running Fox TV series, Empire (2015-2020), Taraji P. Henson (birthname: Taraji Penda Henson) is clearly one of the trailblazers for the new generation of Black female actors in Hollywood. After five years of TV guest appearances on such network hits as ER (1998) and Felicity (1998-1999), Henson’s first significant movie role was in John Singleton’s Locarno festival award-winning Baby Boy (2001), with Tyrese Gibson, Snoop Dogg, and Ving Rhames.
Henson’s first triumph was in the Sundance indie discovery, Craig Brewer’s Hustle & Flow (2005), with Terrence Howard and Anthony Anderson. Henson, one of Singleton’s favorite actors, rejoined him for the crime drama, Four Brothers (2005), with Mark Wahlberg and Tyrese Gibson, followed by Joe Carnahan’s cynical action movie starring Ben Affleck, Smokin’ Aces (2006), with Andy Garcia, Alicia Keys, Ray Liotta, and Ryan Reynolds.
Taraji P. Henson gained great acclaim—and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, one of 13--for the role of Queenie in David Fincher’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), with Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, and Mahershala Ali. Henson joined Hong Kong star Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith for the hit revival, The Karate Kid (2010).
Henson expanded her portfolio to include producing, No Good Deed (2014), with Idris Elba. She executed the same combination of star-executive producer with Babak Nafaji’s thriller Proud Mary (2018), with Danny Glover and Xander Berkeley, and Neil Shankman’s What Men Want (2019), with Tracy Morgan and Erykah Badu.
Taraji P. Henson’s biggest role to date was her portrayal of Black female NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson in Theodore Melfi’s Hidden Figures (2016), with Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kevin Costner, and Kirsten Dunst, which was nominated for three Oscars including Best Picture and won the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Cast.
Taraji P. Henson joined the Despicable Me voice cast for her role of Belle Bottom in Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), with Steve Carell, Michelle Yeoh, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Pierre Coffin, and Dolph Lungren. In recent years, Henson has performed as a voice actor in animated features, including Disney Animation’s Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) and the Canadian-made PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (2023).
Henson collaborated with the gifted Canadian director Michael Dowse for the action comedy, Coffee & Kareem (2020), with Ed Helms, and with director Blitz Bazawule on the musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel, The Color Purple (2023), playing the role of Shug Avery.
Personal Details
D.C.-born Taraji P. Henson was raised by parents Bernice Gordon and Boris Henson. Henson attended Oxon attended North Carolina Agriculture & Technology State University with an electrical engineering major and transferred to Howard University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1995. Her father Boris died in 2006. Henson was in a relationship with William Johnson from 1987 to 1994; the couple had one son, Marcell Johnson, in 1994. Henson was engaged to ex-NFL cornerback Kelvin Hayden in 2018 but called it off by 2020. Her height is 5’ 4”.
Filmography
Actor
- 2023 | PAW Patrol: The Mighty MovieAsVictoria Vance
PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie
A magical meteor crash lands in Adventure City and gives the PAW Patrol pups superpowers, transforming them into The Mighty Pups
- 2023 | The Color PurpleAsShug Avery
The Color Purple
Musical adaptation of Alice Walker's novel about the life-long struggles of an African American woman living in the south during the early 1900s.
- 2019 | The Best of EnemiesAsAnn Atwater
The Best of Enemies
Civil rights activist Ann Atwater faces off against C.P. Ellis, Exalted Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan, in 1971 Durham, North Carolina over the issue of school integration.
- 2019 | What Men WantAsAli Davis
What Men Want
A woman is boxed out by the male sports agents in her profession, but gains an unexpected edge over them when she develops the ability to hear men's thoughts.
- 2018 | Proud MaryAsMary
Proud Mary
Mary (Taraji P. Henson) is a hit woman working for an organized crime family in Boston, whose life is completely turned around when she meets a young boy whose path she crosses when a professional hit goes bad.
- 2018 | Ralph Breaks the InternetAsYesss
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Six years after the events of 'Wreck-It Ralph,' Ralph and Vanellope, now friends, discover a wi-fi router in their arcade, leading them into a new adventure.
- 2018 | Tyler Perry’s AcrimonyAsMelinda
Tyler Perry’s Acrimony
A faithful wife, tired of standing by her devious husband, is enraged when it becomes clear she has been betrayed.
- 2016 | Hidden FiguresAsKatherine G. Johnson
Hidden Figures
The story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program.
- 2016 | Hidden FiguresAsKatherine G. Johnson
Hidden Figures
The story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program.
- 2014 | No Good DeedAsTerry
No Good Deed
An unstable escaped convict terrorizes a woman who is alone with her two children.
Some Facts About Taraji P. Henson
Job-Jobs: To cover her tuition for Howard University, Taraji P. Henson held two jobs: working as a secretary at the Pentagon in the morning, and working as a singing-dancing waitress on a cruise ship at night.
First Movie Role: Henson’s first credit movie role is “Left-Wing Student” in The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000).
Animal Rights Activist: Taraji P. Henson posed nude for PETA’s “I’d Rather Be Naked Than Wear Fur” ad campaign in 2011, and participated in another PETA campaign in 2013.
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