ANGELA BASSETT is perhaps best known for her powerful portrayal of Tina Turner, opposite Laurence Fishburne, in the biopic “What’s Love Got To Do With It,” which earned a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama, an Academy Award® nomination, and her first NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture. Bassett has since been honored with numerous nominations for the Image Award and won nine. Bassett most recently starred as heiress Claudine Watson, opposite Paula Patton, in the wedding-themed comedy “Jumping the Broom,” revolving around two African-American families from opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum. She will soon be seen as CIA boss Collins, alongside Chris Pine, Tom Hardy and Reese Witherspoon in McG’s action/romantic comedy “This Means War,” which follows two best friends and international spies who fall in love with the same woman. She also plays the role of Martha, a Vassar-educated, Bronx-tough, Special Agent in charge of the elite FBI Identity Crimes Unit in ABC’s new drama pilot “Identity.”
The New York City native began her career on stage after completing her studies at the Yale School of Drama. Her stage credits, on and off Broadway, include “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Colored People’s Time,” “Henry IV, Part I,” “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” “Antigone,” Pericles,” and Black Girl.” She returned to the stage in 1998 to star opposite Alec Baldwin in “Macbeth” at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in New York and most recently won rave reviews for her work opposite Fishburne in August Wilson’s “Fences” at the Pasadena Playhouse.
Bassett made the successful crossover to film when she appeared in a small but rich role as the ambitious single mother in John Singleton’s “Boyz N the Hood,” which marked her first collaboration with Fishburne. She also starred opposite him in the more recent critically acclaimed “Akeelah and the Bee.”
Among Bassett’s many other films are “Notorious”; Tyler Perry’s “Meet the Browns”; “Nothing But The Truth”; “Giancarlo Esposito’s “Gospel Hill”; “Mr. 3000,” with Bernie Mac; John Sayles’ “Sunshine State,” “Passion Fish” and “City of Hope”; “The Score,” alongside Robert DeNiro, Edward Norton and Marlon Brando; “Boesman and Lena”; “Supernova”; “Music of the Heart,” with Meryl Streep; “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”; Robert Zemeckis’ “Contact,” opposite Jodie Foster; Terry McMillan’s “Waiting to Exhale”; Kathryn Bigelow’s “Strange Days,” with Ralph Fiennes; Mario Van Peebles’ “Panther”; “Vampire in Brooklyn,” alongside Eddie Murphy; and Spike Lee’s acclaimed biopic “Malcolm X,” opposite Denzel Washington. She lent her voice to the character of Mildred in Disney’s animated hit “Meet the Robinsons,” based on the successful children’s book of the same name by William Joyce, and was heard as Michelle Obama on “The Simpsons.”
Bassett also received Emmy nominations for performances in PBS’ “Storytime” and “The Rosa Parks Story”; a Screen Actors Guild Award® nomination for “Ruby’s Bucket of Blood”; and had recurring roles on the hit series “Alias” and “E.R.”
