Bassett, Angela Evelyn
1958- , American actress, b. New York, N.Y., Yale Univ.
(B.A., 1980; M.F.A., 1983; D.F.A. (2018, hon.). Bassett’s parents
divorced when she was young, and she was raised first by her aunt and then
her mother, moving to St. Petersburg, Fl. , where she attended junior high
and high school. She was the first Black student from her high school to be
admitted to the National Honor Society. After attending college at Yale,
Bassett broke through as a screen actress portraying Tina Turner in the biopic
What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993), earning a
Golden Globe for Best Actress-Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, the first
Black woman to do so. Other notable parts in film include portraying Betty
Shabazz in both Malcolm X (1992) and
Panther (1995), Stella Paine in How Stella Got
Her Grove Back (1998), and Raymonda in Black
Panther (2018). She has also portrayed historic figures on
television, including The Rosa Parks Story (2002), and in
dramatic parts in the anthology series, American Horror
Story, appearing in several different seasons (2013-16, 2018).
She produces and stars in the police drama, 9-1-1
(2018-ongoing). Among her awards and honors are three Black Reel Awards,
seven NAACP Image Awards, and seven Primetime Emmy Awards.
See her Friends: A Love Story (2009, with C. B. Vance).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Film and Television: Biographies
