First thought about becoming an actress when she saw James Earl Jones in a Kennedy Center production of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men while on a school trip in 1974.
Met husband Courtney B. Vance at the Yale Drama School.
In addition to Boyz N the Hood and her breakout role in 1993's What's Love Got to Do With It, has appeared with Laurence Fishburne in Akeelah and the Bee and a Pasadena Playhouse production of August Wilson's Fences (both in 2006).
Beat out Halle Berry and Robin Givens for the role of Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do With It.
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