Past Talent

Angela Bassett

Alluring audiences with emotionally tinged performances that smolder across the screen have been the signature of Angela Bassett. She personifies a sense of dignity and pride whenever she appears on screen. She has earned the acclaim and respect to emerge as one of the industry’s premier actors.

The Yale-trained thespian recently made the move behind the cameras with two high profile television films in which she served as executive producer – “The Rosa Parks Story” and “Our America.” When CBS elected to make “The Rosa Parks Story,” Bassett was the network’s only choice for the leading role. People Magazine raved that Bassett portrays Parks with “grace and dignity.” This Emmy-nominated role is yet another addition to her impressive roster portraying landmark women of historical notoriety.

Bassett repeatedly demonstrates her talents, both as a supporting actress and in starring roles. She received two 2003 NAACP Awards for “Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture” for her role in “Sunshine State,” and “Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Drama” for her role in the “Rosa Parks Story.” In 2002, she received the NAACP Award for “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture” for her role in “The Score,” opposite actors Robert de Niro, Edward Norton and Marlon Brando. Her electrifying performance in “Ruby’s Bucket of Blood,” earned Bassett a nomination for a Screen Actors Guild Award and won her the 2002 NAACP Award for “Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries.” At the 8th Annual Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards, Bassett was given the prestigious “Lena Horne Award for Outstanding Career Achievement.”

Bassett’s peers continually praise her performances. In 2000, she co-starred in “Boesman and Lena” with Danny Glover, and received an NAACP nomination for Best Actress. In 1996, she won an Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for her performance in “Waiting to Exhale,” in which she co-starred with Whitney Houston. Three years later, she won an Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in “How Stella Got Her Groove Back.” For her searing and now classic portrayal of Tina Turner in “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” Bassett won a Golden Globe award for Best Actress, and was nominated as Best Actress for the Academy Award.

In 1992, Bassett starred opposite Denzel Washington in Spike Lee’s epic film “Malcolm X,” portraying Betty Shabazz, the wife of the volatile Muslim leader. Her powerful performance caught the attention of critics around the country.

Bassett decided on an acting career while on an elementary school field trip to Washington, D.C., where she saw James Earl Jones perform in “Of Mice and Men.” Beginning her career on stage, this Yale School of Drama graduate (she also attended undergraduate college at Yale) completed several productions on and off Broadway, including: “Antigone,” “Black Girl,” “Colored People’s Time,” “Henry IV, Part 1,” “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” and “Pericles.” She made the successful crossover to the silver screen in a resonant role, as an ambitious single mother struggling to raise her teenage son, in “Boyz N the Hood.”

Even with her very full career in film and television, Bassett and her husband, actor Courtney B. Vance still managed to find time to launch Bassett Vance productions. The power couple also enjoys giving back to the community. She is involved with several charity organizations. The New York native spent her childhood in St. Petersburg, Florida and currently resides in Los Angeles.