Women of Color making entertainment history

Women of color are finally receiving the recognition they deserve in the entertainment industry, and the future looks bright and promising in Hollywood.

Many established stars, like Viola Davis, Taraji P. Henson, and Angela Bassett, have fought to be treated with respect, to be offered more opportunities, and to be allowed to do what they love, despite the color of their skin. Their efforts and legacy, nonetheless, have paved the way for a new generation, with actresses like Zendaya, Letitia Wright, and Storm Reid. And directors are just as important, and are coming into the picture as they bring projects to life.

Actresses have always served as role models for some people. Halle Berry, for instance, began her career as a model, and slowly entered into the world of acting with her breakthrough film Boomerang (1992). She became the first African-American woman to win an Academy Award for Best Actress for Monster’s Ball (2001) and also won an Emmy and Golden Globe award for the film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999). She has won many other awards as well, like BET awards, NAACP Image Awards, People’s Choice Awards, and many others.

Viola Davis is an actress with more experience, having started acting in high school, then in college at a professional level. She has won Tony, Oscar, and Emmy awards for various projects such as the Broadway revival of August Wilson’s play Fences. Additionally, she is the first African-American woman to achieve the “Triple Crown of Acting”.

Another actress worth mentioning is Zoe Saldana. She has participated in a long repertoire of blockbuster films: Avatar, Star Trek, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Saldana is multi-talented; she not only acts, but is also a trained dancer. She has received various accolades, such as the Saturn Award, ALMA Award, BSFC Award, among others.

Regina King is also a recognized actress, one of Hollywood’s most in-demand African-American actresses. She is versatile as a performer and has participated in a wide range of films. These include Jerry Maguire, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and If Beale Street Could Talk. The latter won her a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, and in 2019, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Let’s not forget to mention that she is a director, as well as a producer.

Lupita Nyong’O is also on this list due to her impressive repertoire of works, which include Us (2019), Black Panther (2018), the play Eclipsed (2015), and 12 Years a Slave (2013). The last won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and she became the first Mexican actress to win an Academy Award.

She has received other awards: a Daytime Emmy Award, four NAACP Image Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Nyong’O is involved in supporting historic preservation and is vocal about preventing sexual harassment. She also works toward achieving women’s rights. In the year 2020, she was named one of Africa’s “50 Most Powerful Women” by Forbes.

Angela Bassett is known for portraying strong African-American female leading roles, including her interpretations of singer Tina Turner in the biopic What’s Love Got To Do With It (1993), Betty Shabazz in Malcolm X (1992) and Panther (1995), Coretta Scott King in Betty & Coretta (2013), and Queen Ramonda in Black Panther (2018). She is the recipient of various accolades such as three Black Reel Awards, a Golden Globe Award, seven NAACP Image Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as nominations for an Academy Award and seven Emmy Awards.

Bassett isn’t just an actress. She, as well as Regina King, worked in the position of director and producer.

Continuing with the directors, names such as Shonda Rhimes and Ava DuVernay stand out. Rhimes is the first African-American woman to create and executive produce a “Top 10” network series, as well as the first woman to create three hit shows with more than 100 episodes each, including Grey’s Academy (2005-2019). Her latest masterpiece, Bridgerton, was a success, and was viewed by 82 million people on Netflix in its first month.

Rhimes is also an advocate for racial and gender parity, as she joined several A-listers in 2021, calling out the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which are the ones responsible for deciding the Golden Globe winners, for not having one Black member out of 87.

Ava DuVernay, on the other hand, was the first African-American woman to direct a film (A Wrinkle in Time), with a budget over $100 million, as well as the first to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award as an African-American woman. Like Rhimes, she has been an advocate for more inclusiveness and pointed out the inequities and lack of diversity in the HFPA, stating throughout a Tweet that “…the playing field can be more equitable for artists of all kinds, colors and cultures.” Some of her most notable work includes Selma (2014) and Middle of Nowhere (2012).

There are numerous other actresses and directors that deserve recognition and applause. Their work and dedication have helped break down barriers that prevented women of color from entering the entertainment industry, and have made Hollywood a more diverse place. They have prepared the path for future talents and generations of actresses, directors, producers, writers, and filmmakers of color that will create just the great impact as they have, or even greater.