Angela Bassett Biography (3)

Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee Angela Bassett, received an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe Award for her searing portrayal of Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It? She recently starred in the drama Boesman & Lena with Danny Glover, for which she received an Image Award nomination as Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, and provided the voice for Groove the elephant in the children's film Whispers: An Elephant's Tale.

She also starred in last year's sci-fi thriller Supernova with James Spader; the acclaimed "Music of the Heart, opposite Meryl Streep and directed by Wes Craven; and the 1998 screen adaptation of Terry McMillan's novel How Stella Got Her Groove Back, with Whoopi Goldberg and Taye Diggs. Among Bassett's other credits are the blockbuster Contact, with Jodie Foster; and the popular Waiting to Exhale, directed by Forest Whitaker.

In 1995, Bassett starred in Strange Days and played the lead opposite Eddie Murphy in Vampire in Brooklyn. She previously starred in Spike Lee's epic film Malcolm X (as Betty Shabazz), Boyz N the Hood, Kindergarten Cop, City of Hope and Innocent Blood.

Born in New York City and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, Bassett won a scholarship to Yale University, where she received her bachelor's degree in Afro-American studies, and an MFA from the prestigious Yale School of Drama. Her stage appearances include Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Colored People's Time, Black Girl, Henry IV, Part I Joe Turner's Come and Gone and, with Alec Baldwin, a 1998 production of Macbeth at New York's Joseph Papp Public Theater.

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