Claim: Taraji P. Henson is a performer.

Taraji Penda Henson -LRB- -LSB- tə ` rɑːdʒi -RSB- ; born September 11 , 1970 -RRB- is an American actress and author . She studied acting at Howard University and began her Hollywood career in guest-roles on several television shows before making her breakthrough in Baby Boy -LRB- 2001 -RRB- . She received praise for playing a prostitute in Hustle & Flow -LRB- 2005 -RRB- and a single mother in David Fincher 's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button -LRB- 2008 -RRB- ; for the latter , she received Academy Award , SAG Award and Critics Choice Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress ; for the former , she received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture nomination . In 2010 , she appeared in the comedy Date Night and co-starred in the remake of The Karate Kid .   Henson has also had an extensive career in television in series such as The Division , Boston Legal and Eli Stone . In 2011 Henson starred in the Lifetime Television film Taken from Me : The Tiffany Rubin Story , which earned her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie . From 2011 to 2013 , she co-starred as Detective Jocelyn Carter in the CBS drama Person of Interest , for which she won an NAACP Image Award . Henson went on to star in the ensemble film Think Like a Man -LRB- 2012 -RRB- and its 2014 sequel . In 2015 , she began starring as Cookie Lyon on the Fox drama series Empire , for which she became the first African-American woman to win a Critics ' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series . She also won a Golden Globe Award , and was nominated for two Emmy Awards , in 2015 and 2016 .   In 2016 , Time named Henson one of the 100 most influential people in the world on the annual Time 100 list . That year , Henson also released a New York Times best selling autobiography titled Around the Way Girl . Also that year , she received praise for her starring role as Katherine Johnson in the critically acclaimed drama film Hidden Figures , for which she won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture .