Claim: Octavia Spencer worked on a film series.

Octavia Lenora Spencer -LRB- born May 25 , 1972 -RRB- is an American actress and author . She made her film debut in A Time to Kill . Her breakthrough came in 2011 , when she starred as Minny Jackson in the period film The Help , for which she won the Academy Award , Golden Globe , SAG , BAFTA , and Critics ' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress . She had a critically acclaimed performance in Ryan Coogler 's drama Fruitvale Station -LRB- 2013 -RRB- , for which she received the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress . Recently , Spencer has received acclaim for her work in the films Get on Up , Black or White , Smashed , Snowpiercer , The Divergent Series : Insurgent , and Zootopia . In 2017 , she received Academy Award , Golden Globe , and SAG nominations for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as mathematician Dorothy Vaughan in the drama Hidden Figures .   As an author , Spencer has started a children 's book series titled Randi Rhodes Ninja Detective , publishing two books in the series - The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit -LRB- 2013 -RRB- and The Sweetest Heist in History -LRB- 2015 -RRB- .