Taraji Penda Henson is an American actress. Studied acting at Howard University. Taraji started her career in guest roles on several television shows. Making her breakthrough in Baby Boy (2001) a comedy-drama film where she played Yvette, alongside singer Tyrese Gibson.
Her first and middle names are Swahili in origin: Taraji “hope” and Penda “love”. She has said that North Pole explorer Matthew Henson was “(her) great grandfather's brother. Henson is a Christian and considers acting a spiritual experience.
She received an Academy Award nomination for her role as a single mother of a disabled child in David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). In 2010, he appeared in the action comedy Date Night and the drama The Karate Kid. In 2016, she starred as mathematician Kathryn Johnson in the hit drama Hidden Figures.
In addition, Henson also had an extensive television career starring in the television movie Lifetime: Taken From Me, The Tiffany Rubin Story (2011), which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. In 2015–2020, she starred as Cookie Lyon in the Fox drama series Empire, for which she became the first African-American woman to win the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series.
In addition, she has won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards in 2015 and 2016. In 2016, Time named Henson one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Also that year, she released a New York Times best-selling autobiography called Around the Way Girl.
Henson starred in two of Tyler Perry's movies. The Family That Preys in 2008 and I Can Do Bad All By Myself (2009). In 2010, he appeared in the remake of The Karate Kid with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. Although reviews were lackluster, the film was a commercial success. In January 2018, she starred in Sony Screen Gem's thriller film Proud Mary. She starred in the Tyler Perry film Acrimony and then voiced the character Yesss in Disney's Ralph Breaks the Internet, a sequel to activist Ann Atwater.
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Taraji graduated from Oxon Hill School in Oxon Hill, Maryland, in 1988. She attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, where she intended to study electrical engineering before transferring to Howard University to study theater. To pay for college, she worked mornings as a secretary at the Pentagon and evenings as a singing and dancing waitress on a dinner cruise ship, the Spirit of Washington.
Henson received her Screen Actor Guild (SAG) membership card in the early 1990s for three roles as a performer. In 2005, she starred in the independent film Hustle & Flow as Shug, the love interest of Terrence Howard, who played the male lead, Djay. She made her singing debut in the film which was nominated for two Oscars and won one. In 2008, she appeared with Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, playing Queenie, Benjamin's mother, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Penta is also slated to star in and produce The Emmett Till Story, a film about Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy from Chicago who was kidnapped, tortured, murdered and dumped in a river by two white men in rural Mississippi. 1955. Henson will play Till's mother, Mammie. In December 2020, Taraji began hosting the talk show Peace of Mind with Taraji on Facebook Watch.
Taraji Henson Age
Penta was born on September 11, 1970. As of 2023, she is 53 years old.
Taraji Henson Parents
Penda was born in Southeast Washington DC She is the daughter of Bernice, (a corporate manager at Woodward & Lothrop) and Boris Lawrence Henson, (a janitor and metal fabricator). Penda also talked about the influence of her maternal grandmother, Patsy Ballard, who accompanied her to the Oscars the year she was nominated.
Taraji Henson Son
Henson gave birth to her son Marcell in the year 1994. Marcel's father, Hensons high school sweetheart William LaMarr Johnson, was murdered in 2003. In 2014, Henson said her son was racially profiled by the police. His car had been illegally searched during a traffic stop in Glendale, California. A video obtained by the Los Angeles Times showed Marcel had crossed a lighted crosswalk while a pedestrian was crossing, had given verbal consent to a search of his vehicle and admitted to smoking marijuana 2 hours before driving. Hashish oil and marijuana were found in Marcel's car. Henson said in a message on Instagram: “I would like to publicly apologize to the officer and the Glendale Police Department. A mother's job is not easy, neither is a policeman's.
Is Taraji Henson Married?
Henson announced that she had ended her marriage and split with her fiance of two years, Kelvin Hayden. This major life decision came right after her 50th birthday trip to Mexico.
Taraji Henson Height
Penta is an average female height of 5 feet 4 inches
Taraji Henson Net Worth
Penta has amassed a net worth of $25 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth as of 2023. She has been able to put her earnings to work. Adding real estate and entrepreneurship to her portfolio.
