Halle Berry

Oscar-winning actress who as a high school cheerleader and beauty queen was the first African American to represent the United States in the Miss World pageant in 1986. After a stint on Knot's Landing (1991–92), she moved on to films, starring in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (1991) and Alex Haley's Queen (1993) before going opposite Kurt Russell in Executive Decision (1996) and Warren Beatty in Bulworth (1998). She has appeared in critically acclaimed roles (The Wedding, 1998) and critically panned roles (B*A*P*S, 1997). Berry won wide praise—and Emmy and Golden Globe awards—for her title role in the television biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999). Her most notable films include Bullworth (1998), X-Men (2000) and sequels X2 (2003) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), the James Bond movie Die Another Day (2002), and Monster's Ball (2001), for which she won a Best Actress Oscar and a reputation as a talented, versatile actress.