Despite racial inequity, Hollywood is brimming with melanin magic makers who bring raw talent to the big and small screen. With that in mind, we’d be remiss not to celebrate these luminaries this Women’s History Month.
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A true thespian can do it all; invoke emotions of grief and sadness with soul-stirring performances, put audiences at ease with relatable portrayals, and give watchers moments of respite with laughs as they navigate an often callous world.
Bubbling Black Actresses do all of the aforementioned even while facing obstacles as double minorities. Most recently those issues were brought to the forefront by Taraji P. Henson who reveled in the opportunity to portray Shug Avery in The Color Purple but refused to remain silent on Hollywood’s inclusion issues.
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In particular, the issue of pay disparity weighed on the actress’ spirit as she opined about Tinseltown’s affinity for underpaying and undervaluing Black women and admitted she once considered quitting.
“I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, getting paid a fraction of the cost,” Henson said in a SiriusXM with Gayle King. “I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired. I hear people go, ‘You work a lot.’ I have to. The math ain’t mathing.”
“It seems every time I do something and break another glass ceiling, when it’s time to renegotiate, I’m at the bottom again, like I never did what I just did, and I’m tired,” she added.
She later doubled down on her words at the NAACP Image Awards after host Queen Latifah thanked her for “standing up for all of us.”
“It’s a scary thing to speak your truth but I urge you all to speak your truth because at the end of the day, that’s all we have,” she said while accepting her Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress. “And like they say, ‘the truth will set you free.’ And not only that, it will set somebody else free.”
As Taraji continues her truth-telling about fellow Black actresses, BOSSIP is shining a spotlight on her sistas in cinema blowing us away with their God-given gifts.
Last year, we highlighted sizzlers like Lauren Lott, Danielle Deadwyler, and Halle Bailey, this year, we’re adding more ladies to our list.
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Lights, camera, action!
In no particular order, here’s BOSSIP’s Bubbling Black Actresses of 2024.
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