Claim: Halle Berry entered beauty contests.

Halle Maria Berry -LRB- born Maria Halle Berry ; August 14 , 1966 -RRB- is an American actress . She won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the romantic drama Monster 's Ball -LRB- 2001 -RRB- . As of 2017 , she is the only black woman to have won a Best Actress Academy Award .   Berry was one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood during the 2000s and has been involved in the production of several of the films in which she performed . She is also a Revlon spokesmodel . Before becoming an actress , she started modeling and entered several beauty contests , finishing as the 1st runner-up in the Miss USA Pageant and coming in 6th place in the Miss World Pageant in 1986 . Her breakthrough film role was in the romantic comedy Boomerang -LRB- 1992 -RRB- , alongside Eddie Murphy , which led to roles in films such as the comedy The Flintstones -LRB- 1994 -RRB- , the political comedy-drama Bulworth -LRB- 1998 -RRB- and the television film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge -LRB- 1999 -RRB- , for which she won the Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress , among many other awards .   In addition to her Academy Award win , Berry garnered high-profile roles in the 2000s such as Storm in the X-Men film series -LRB- beginning in 2000 -RRB- , the action crime thriller Swordfish -LRB- 2001 -RRB- , and the spy film Die Another Day -LRB- 2002 -RRB- , where she played Bond Girl Jinx . She then appeared in the X-Men sequels , X2 -LRB- 2003 -RRB- and X-Men : The Last Stand -LRB- 2006 -RRB- . In the 2010s , she appeared in movies such as the science fiction film Cloud Atlas -LRB- 2012 -RRB- , the crime thriller The Call -LRB- 2013 -RRB- and X-Men : Days of Future Past -LRB- 2014 -RRB- .   Berry was formerly married to baseball player David Justice , and singer-songwriter Eric Benét . She has a daughter by model Gabriel Aubry , and a son by actor Olivier Martinez .