African-American actresses who paved the way in Hollywood

4. Taraji P. Henson

Taraji P. Henson is a Screen Actors Guild Award recipient and Golden Globe Award winner. Henson studies at Howard University and she made her film debut as Yvette in Baby Boy (2001). She also gained notoriety for films like Hustle & Flow (2005) and David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in 2008.

She also has an extensive history in television series like The Division, Boston Legal and Eli Stone. And in 2015 she began starring as Cookie Lyon on the hit Fox drama series Empire where she became the first African-American women to win a Critic’s Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama series. She followed that up with a Golden Globe and then she was nominated for Emmy Award in 2015 and 2016.

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