Regina King, American actress
Regina Rene King (born January 15, 1971) is an American actress and director. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, and four Primetime Emmy Awards, the most for an African-American performer. In 2019, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.King first gained attention for playing Brenda Jenkins in the television series 227 (1985–1990). Her subsequent roles included the film Friday (1995), the animated series The Boondocks (2005–2014), and the crime television series Southland (2009–2013). From 2015 to 2017, King starred in the ABC anthology series American Crime, for which she won two Primetime Emmy Awards, and in 2018, she starred in the Netflix miniseries Seven Seconds, for which she won her third Primetime Emmy Award. She starred in Barry Jenkins' film adaptation of the James Baldwin novel If Beale Street Could Talk (2018). For her performance, she won the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress. King won her fourth Primetime Emmy Award for starring in the dystopian superhero limited series Watchmen (2019).
King has also played supporting roles in the films Boyz n the Hood (1991), Poetic Justice (1993), Ray (2004), A Cinderella Story (2004), as well as in the comedies Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2003), and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous (2005). Her other television roles include the drama series The Leftovers (2015–2017) and the sitcom The Big Bang Theory (2013–2019).
King has directed episodes for several television shows, including Scandal in 2015 and 2016 and This Is Us in 2017. She has also directed the music video for the 2010 song "Finding My Way Back" by Jaheim. Her feature film directorial debut came with the drama One Night in Miami... (2020), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director and a Directors Guild of America Award for First Time Feature Film. She became the second black woman to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director.