Alfre woodard biography actors

Alfre Woodard was born in Tulsa, the youngest of three children to Constance, a homemaker, and Marion H. Woodard, an interior designer. A former high school cheerleader and track star, she caught the acting bug after being persuaded to audition for a school play. She went on to study acting at Boston University and enjoyed a brief stint on Broadway before moving to Los Angeles, California. Her first break came in 1978 with Remember My Name.

In addition to being named one of the Most Beautiful People in America by People magazine, her work as an actor has earned her four Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, three Screen Actors Guide Awards, plus nominations for an Academy Award and two Grammy Awards.

Her Emmy nominations include Outstanding Supporting Actress as Ouiser Boudreaux in the Lifetime remake of Steel Magnolias and for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series on the HBO show, True Blood. Woodard’s illustrious body of work includes her Oscar nominated performance in Martin Ritt’s Cross Creek; Lawrence Kasdan’s Grand Canyon; John Sayles’ Passion Fish; Joseph Sargent’s Miss Evers’ Boys, for which she won an Emmy, SAG, and Golden Globe Award; Spike Lee’s Crooklyn; Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Love and Basketball; Tyler Perry’s The Family that Preys; Maya Angelou’s Down in the Delta; and Steve McQueen’s Twelve Years a Slave in the role of Mistress Harriet Shaw. In November, 2014, she began starring in the NBC drama series, State of Affairs.

Her relationship with Nelson Mandela began in 1987 when she played Winnie Mandela in HBO’s Mandela. Later, Woodard directed and produced Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales, which won the 2010 Audiobook of the Year, and garnered a 2010 GRAMMY Award nomination for “Best Children’s Spoken Word Album.”

In addition to her acting career, Woodard is a longtime activist. She co-founded Artists for a New South Africa, a nonprofit working to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

One of the most accomplished and talented African-American actresses of her generation, Alfre Woodard earned an Oscar nomination and multiple Emmy wins in a prolific film and TV career that spanned over three decades.

Woodard worked primarily in drama, where she was celebrated for her grounding force in "Passion Fish" (1992), "Crooklyn" (1994), "How to Make an American Quilt" (1995) and "Down in the Delta" (1998), though she occasionally offered up her uninhibited wit in "Beauty Shop" (2005) and "Desperate Housewives" (ABC, 2004-2012). Among Woodard's most praised performances were TV movies that explored the African-American experience, including James Baldwin's "Go Tell it on the Mountain" (PBS, 1985), "The Piano Lesson" (CBS, 1995), "Miss Evers' Boys" (HBO, 1997) and the TV movie remake of the feature "Steel Magnolias" (Lifetime, 2012). She also shown in guest roles, including her turn as a mentally ill mother on the hit vampire series "True Blood" (HBO, 2008-14).

Woodard never considered herself a star but rather a working actress, though her rich gallery of characterizations - whether rural and poverty-stricken or educated women in positions of power - embodied an instinctual savvy and realistic viewpoint that placed her in a league of her own.

Born on Nov. 8, 1952, and raised in Tulsa, OK, Woodard started out her acting career as "stone-head hippie; semi-black nationalist" at Boston University. She graduated with a BFA in theater in 1974 and went straight to stage work; first at Washington, DC's Arena Theatre before landing a breakthrough in the 1977 Los Angeles production of "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf."

Woodard was featured in the PBS drama "The Trial of the Moke" (1978) and pushed the art of deadpan to new heights playing a hotel manager in Robert Altman's droll satire "Health" (1979). She went on to a string of distinguished small screen appearances, including the PBS version of "For Colo

American actress (born 1952)

Alfre Woodard (AL-free WUUD-ərd; born November 8, 1952) is an American actress. Known for portraying strong-willed and dignified roles on stage and screen, she has received various accolades, including four Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards as well as nominations for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and two Grammy Awards. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her as one of "The 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century". She is a board member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Woodard began her acting career in theater. After her breakthrough role in the Off-Broadway play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf (1977). She received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in Cross Creek (1983). She earned a BAFTA Award for Best Actress nomination for her role in Clemency (2019). Woodard's notable films include Grand Canyon (1991), Passion Fish (1992), Heart and Souls (1993), Crooklyn (1994), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), Primal Fear (1996), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Down in the Delta (1998), 12 Years a Slave (2013), and Juanita (2019). She voiced Sarabi in The Lion King (2019).

Woodard gained prominence for her television role as Dr. Roxanne Turner in the NBC medical drama St. Elsewhere, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1986, and for Guest Actress in 1988. She's received four Primetime Emmy Awards for her roles in the NBC drama series Hill Street Blues in 1984, the NBC series L.A. Law in 1987, the HBO film Miss Evers' Boys (1997), and The Practice in 2003. From 2005 to 2006, Woodard starred as Betty Applewhite in the ABC comedy-drama series Desperate Housewives. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) she portrayed the "Black" Mari