Alfre Woodard

**Alfre Woodard** (/ˈælfri ˈwʊdərd/; born November 8, 1952) is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including four Primetime Emmy Awards (the most wins for an African-American performer, along with Regina King), a Golden Globe Award, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and two Grammy Awards. In 2020, *The New York Times* ranked Woodard seventeenth on its list of "The 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century". She is also known for her work as a political activist and producer. Woodard is a founder of Artists for a New South Africa, an organization devoted to advancing democracy and equality in that country. She is a board member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Woodard began her acting career in theater. After her breakthrough role in the Off-Broadway play *For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf* (1977), she made her film debut in *Remember My Name* (1978). In 1983, she won major critical praise and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in *Cross Creek*. In the same year, Woodard won her first Primetime Emmy Award for her performance in the NBC drama series *Hill Street Blues*. Later in the 1980s, Woodard had leading Emmy Award–nominated performances in a number of made for television films, and another Emmy-winning role as a woman dying of leukemia in the pilot episode of *L.A. Law*. She also starred as Dr. Roxanne Turner in the NBC medical drama *St. Elsewhere*, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1986, and for Guest Actress in 1988.

In the 1990s, Woodard starred in films such as *Grand Canyon* (1991), *Heart and Souls* (1993), *Crooklyn* (1994), *How to Make an American Quilt* (1995), *Primal Fear* (1996) and *Star Trek: First Contact* (1996). She also drew critical praise for her performances in the independent dramas *Passion Fish* (1992), for which she won an Independent Spirit Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, as well as *Down in the Delta* (1998). For her lead role in the HBO film *Miss Evers' Boys* (1997), Woodard won Golden Globe, Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, and several other awards. In later years, she has appeared in several blockbusters, like *K-PAX* (2001), *The Core* (2003), and *The Forgotten* (2004), starred in independent films, and won her fourth Emmy Award for *The Practice* in 2003. From 2005 to 2006, Woodard starred as Betty Applewhite in the ABC comedy-drama series *Desperate Housewives*, and later starred in several short-lived series. She appeared in the critically acclaimed films *12 Years a Slave* (2013), *Juanita* (2019), *Clemency* (2019, for which she was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role) as well as the box office hits *Annabelle* (2014) and the remake of *The Lion King* (2019). In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) multimedia franchise, Woodard portrays grieving mother Miriam Sharpe and crime boss "Black" Mariah Dillard Stokes respectively in the feature film *Captain America: Civil War* (2016) and the streaming television series *Luke Cage* (2016–2018).