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).
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