Angela Bassett

Born: 16th August 1958
Where: New York

Angela was first exposed to theatre through the Upward Bound program for academically gifted low-income children, and was inspired to act after watching James Earl Jones on stage in Of Mice and Men.

She learned her craft at the Yale School of Drama where she began an association with celebrated stage director Lloyd Richards who directed her on Broadway in two plays - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Joe Turner's Come and Gone.

Angela's screen career began in 1985 with a guest shot on the detective drama Spenser: For Hire. While the action thriller F/X marked her move into features, Angela remained more regularly employed in TV during the late 1980s and early 90s.

She first gained notice in features in John Singleton's Boyz in the Hood, then played Malcolm X's wife in Spike Lee's epic biopic.

Angela earned rave reviews and a Best Actress Oscar nomination in her debut as a feature lead in the Tina Turner biopic What's Love Got To Do With It.

After a break, Angela returned to the screen with leads in three highly publicized 1995 Hollywood releases - the sci-fi action flick Strange Days; the Eddie Murphy horror comedy Vampire in Brooklyn; and the adaptation of Terry McMillan's best-selling novel Waiting to Exhale.

She co-starred with Danny Glover in Boesman and Lena, and played Robert De Niro's love interest in The Score, after which she was cast in the Bob Dylan film Masked & Anonymous.