My Favorite Black Entertainers
by rundtc | created - 05 Apr 2011 | updated - 24 Jan 2012 | PublicThis is in response to all the people who think I'm a racist.
1. Denzel Washington
Actor | Fences
Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. was born on December 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York. He is the middle of three children of a beautician mother, Lennis, from Georgia, and a Pentecostal minister father, Denzel Washington, Sr., from Virginia. After graduating from high school, Denzel enrolled at ...
2. Will Smith
Producer | The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Willard Carroll "Will" Smith II (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor, comedian, producer, rapper, and songwriter. He has enjoyed success in television, film, and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him "the most powerful actor in Hollywood". Smith has been nominated for five Golden ...
3. Samuel L. Jackson
Actor | Pulp Fiction
Samuel L. Jackson is an American producer and highly prolific actor, having appeared in over 100 films, including Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Unbreakable (2000), Shaft (2000), Formula 51 (2001), Black Snake Moan (2006), Snakes on a Plane (2006), and the Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999-2005), ...
4. Morgan Freeman
Actor | Driving Miss Daisy
With an authoritative voice and calm demeanor, this ever popular American actor has grown into one of the most respected figures in modern US cinema. Morgan was born on June 1, 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee, to Mayme Edna (Revere), a teacher, and Morgan Porterfield Freeman, a barber. The young Freeman...
5. Don Cheadle
Actor | Crash
Donald Frank Cheadle was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 29, 1964. His childhood found him moving from city to city with his family: mother Bettye (née North), a teacher; father Donald Frank Cheadle Sr., a clinical psychologist; sister Cindy; and brother Colin. After graduating from high...
6. Shaquille O'Neal
Actor | Steel
Shaquille O'Neal is a retired professional American basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program Inside the NBA on TNT. He is considered one of the greatest players in National Basketball Association (NBA) history. He was one of the tallest and heaviest players ever. O'Neal ...
7. Cedric The Entertainer
Actor | Barbershop
Cedric the Entertainer is an African-American comedian and actor known for being one of the Original Kings of Comedy. He is also known for his roles in the Barbershop trilogy, the Madagascar trilogy, The Steve Harvey Show, Ice Age, Planes, The Soul Man and The Neighborhood. He has had three ...
8. Redd Foxx
Actor | Sanford and Son
Redd Foxx began doing stand-up comedy on the infamous "Chitlin' Circuit" in the 1940s and 1950s. Foxx was one of the premier "blue humor" comedians. Blue humor was very dirty, too dirty for white audiences. For years his party albums were not available in white record stores. In the 1960s his ...
R.I.P.
9. Ice Cube
Soundtrack | Friday
Ice Cube was born in South Central Los Angeles, to Doris (Benjamin), a custodian and hospital clerk, and Hosea Jackson, a UCLA groundskeeper. He first came to public notice as a singer and songwriter with the controversial and influential band N.W.A. His compositions with that group included many ...
10. Halle Berry
Actress | Catwoman
Halle Maria Berry was born Maria Halle Berry on August 14, 1966 in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in Oakwood, Ohio to Judith Ann Berry (née Hawkins), a psychiatric nurse & Jerome Jesse Berry, a hospital attendant. Her father was African-American and her mother is of mostly English and German descent. ...
11. Rosario Dawson
Actress | Rent
This stunning and resourceful actress has been primarily a film player thus far. Only recently has she been opening herself up more to doing television (the series Gemini Division (2008), which she executive-produced), and animated voice-overs. Dawson's powerhouse talent stands out the most in edgy...
12. Chiwetel Ejiofor
Actor | 12 Years a Slave
English actor, writer and director Chiwetel Ejiofor is renowned for his portrayal of Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave (2013), for which he received Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations, along with the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. He is also known for playing Okwe in Dirty Pretty Things...
13. Leslie David Baker
Actor | The Office
Leslie David Baker is an African-American actor from Chicago, Illinois who is widely known for playing the pretzel and crossword puzzle loving worker Stanley Hudson from The Office. He also acted in Raven's Home, Vivo, The Happytime Murders, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Key & Peele, ...
14. Craig Robinson
Actor | This Is the End
Craig Robinson is an African-American actor, singer, musician and comedian who is known for portraying Darryl Philbin from The Office, LeVar Brown from The Cleveland Show, Doug Judy from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Cookie from Shrek Forever After, himself from This Is The End, and Nick Webber-Agnew from ...
15. Gary Anthony Williams
Actor | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
Gary Anthony Williams is an African-American actor, comedian and writer from Atlanta, Georgia who is known for playing Uncle Ruckus from The Boondocks, Bebop from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows and Tarik Jackson from Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. He is married to Leslie ...
16. Rihanna
Actress | Battleship
Rihanna was born Robyn Rihanna Fenty on February 20, 1988 in Bridgetown, St. Michael, Barbados to Monica Braithwaite, an accountant & Ronald Fenty, a warehouse supervisor. Her mother is Afro-Guyanese and her father is of Afro-Barbadian and British Isles ancestry. Rihanna lived the life of a normal ...
17. Charles Barkley
Actor | Hot Shots!
Charles Barkley is an American retired professional basketball player who is an analyst on Inside the NBA (1988).
Barkley established himself as one of the National Basketball Association's most dominant power forwards. An All-American power forward at Auburn University, he was drafted as a junior ...
18. Dwight Howard
Actor | Free Birds
Dwight Howard was born on December 8, 1985 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Free Birds (2013), The Three Stooges (2012) and Percy Vs Goliath (2020).
19. Marvin Gaye
Soundtrack | High Fidelity
Marvin Pentz Gay Jr. (known professionally as Marvin Gaye; April 2, 1939 - April 1, 1984) was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of successes, earning him the nicknames ...
R.I.P.
20. Run-D.M.C.
Soundtrack | Die Hard
Run-DMC (also spelled Run-D.M.C.) was an American hip hop group from Hollis, Queens, New York City, founded in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of hip hop culture and one of the most famous hip hop ...
21. Ving Rhames
Actor | Pulp Fiction
Strikingly featured and muscular American actor Ving Rhames was born Irving Rameses Rhames in Harlem, New York, to Reather, a homemaker, and Ernest Rhames, an auto mechanic. A good student, Ving entered the New York High School of Performing Arts, where he discovered his love of acting. He studied ...
22. Laurence Fishburne
Actor | The Matrix
Critically hailed for his forceful, militant, authoritative figures and one of Hollywood's most talented and versatile performers, Laurence (John) Fishburne III has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a number of NAACP Image honors.
Born in Augusta, Georgia on July 30, 1961, to Hattie ...
23. Forest Whitaker
Actor | The Last King of Scotland
Forest Steven Whitaker has packaged a king-size talent into his hulking 6' 2", 220 lb. frame. He won an Academy Award for his performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the film The Last King of Scotland (2006), and has also won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. He is the fourth African-American male to...
24. Keith David
Actor | The Princess and the Frog
Keith David is a classically trained actor, winning 3 Emmys out of 6 nominations as well as being nominated for a Tony award. He starred in the recently concluded TV series "Greenleaf" for Oprah Winfrey's OWN network. Upcoming films include "Horizon Line" with Allison Williams ("Get Out") and "...
25. Eve
Actress | Barbershop
Eve was born on November 10, 1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Barbershop (2002), xXx (2002) and Whip It (2009). She has been married to Maximillion Cooper since June 14, 2014. They have one child.
26. Chris Rock
Actor | Top Five
Christopher Julius Rock was born in Andrews, South Carolina and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York. He is the son of Rosalie (Tingman), a teacher and social worker for the mentally handicapped, and Julius Rock, a truck driver and newspaper deliveryman, whose own father was a preacher.
...
27. Bernie Mac
Actor | The Bernie Mac Show
Bernard Jeffrey McCollough was born in 1957 in Chicago, the son of Mary McCullough and Jeffery Harrison. He grew up in the city, in a rougher neighborhood than most others, with a large family living under one roof. This situation provided him with a great insight into his comedy, as his family, ...
R.I.P.
28. Terry Crews
Actor | Idiocracy
Terry Crews was born in Flint, Michigan, to Patricia and Terry Crews Sr. He earned an art excellence scholarship to attend Western Michigan University and also earned a full-ride athletic scholarship to play football. Crews was an All-Conference defensive end, and was a major contributor on the ...
29. Michael Clarke Duncan
Actor | The Green Mile
Michael Clarke Duncan was born on December 10, 1957 in Chicago, Illinois. Raised on Chicago's South Side by his single mother, Jean, a house cleaner, Duncan grew up resisting drugs and alcohol, instead concentrating on school. He wanted to play football in high school, but his mother wouldn't let ...
30. Jay-Z
Soundtrack | The Harder They Fall
Jay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter on December 4, 1969 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York. Carter was a school friend of The Notorious B.I.G.. He first started releasing records in the late 1980s. In 1990, he appeared on records by his close friend, Jas ("The Originators") and Original Flavor ("...
31. Miles Davis
Soundtrack | Adrift
Miles Davis, famous jazz trumpeter, composer and bandleader, was born 26 May 1926 in Alton, Illinois. He moved to New York in 1944 and studied at Juilliard. He left school and entered the jazz society of New York, meeting such famous musicians as Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and Charles Mingus. ...
R.I.P.
32. John Coltrane
Soundtrack | Adrift
John Coltrane was born on September 23, 1926 in Hamlet, North Carolina, USA. He was a music artist and composer, known for Adrift (2018), Vanilla Sky (2001) and Zodiac (2007). He was married to Alice Macleod and Juanita Grubbs. He died on July 17, 1967 in Huntington, Long Island, New York, USA.
R.I.P.
33. Alicia Keys
Soundtrack | The Secret Life of Bees
Alicia Keys was born in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, to Terria Joseph (née Teresa M. Augello), a paralegal who was also an occasional actress, and Craig Cook, a flight attendant. Her father is African-American and her mother, who is Caucasian, is of Italian and English/Irish/Scottish ancestry. Alicia...
34. Jada Pinkett Smith
Actress | The Matrix Revolutions
Jada Koren Pinkett Smith was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Robsol Grant Pinkett, Jr., a contractor, and 'Gammy' Adrienne Banfield Norris, a nurse. They divorced after only a few months of marriage. Her father is of African-American descent and her mother is of Afro-Caribbean ancestry (from ...
35. Marlon Wayans
Actor | White Chicks
Marlon Wayans is an American actor, writer and comedian. He is known for playing Tyrone C. Love in Requiem for a Dream, Shorty Meeks from Scary Movie, Marcus Anthony Copeland II from White Chicks and Thunder from Marmaduke. He played Drake Winston/Robin in deleted scenes of Batman Returns and ...
36. Bill Russell
Actor | On the Right Track
The term Dynasty might have never applied to Basketball had it not been for Bill Russell. In the History of professional sports there has never been an athlete who has more accolades or championships, in other words Bill Russell was not only a champion, but he was perhaps the definition of a ...
37. Magic Johnson
Producer | Obsessed
Magic Johnson was born on August 14, 1959 in Lansing, Michigan, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Obsessed (2009), Dead Tone (2007) and Hair Show (2004). He has been married to Cookie Johnson since September 14, 1991. They have two children.
38. Billy Dee Williams
Actor | Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
Billy Dee Williams was born William December Williams on April 6, 1937 in New York City. Billy Dee has notched up an impressive array of film and television appearances over the past 50+ years. He is easily best known to international film audiences as the roguish Lando Calrissian in the last two ...
39. Biz Markie
Actor | Men in Black II
Biz Markie was an African-American rapper, disk jockey and actor. He was known for his hit 1989 song "Just a Friend". He played a beatboxing alien in Men in Black II (2002) alongside Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. He was originally going to voice The Grizz in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (2013) but...
40. Jimi Hendrix
Soundtrack | Woodstock
Widely regarded as the greatest and most influential guitarist in rock history, Jimi Hendrix was born on November 27, 1942 in Seattle, Washington, to African-American parents Lucille (Jeter) and James Allen Hendrix. His mother named him John Allen Hendrix and raised him alone while his father, Al ...
R.I.P. Greatest Guitarist Ever.
41. André 3000
Actor | Four Brothers
André Lauren Benjamin (born May 27, 1975), better known as André 3000, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. He is best known for being a part of southern hip hop duo Outkast alongside fellow rapper Big Boi.
Benjamin has also acted in films and television series such ...
42. Michael Jordan
Actor | Space Jam
Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born in Brooklyn, New York on February 17, 1963. He was the fourth of five children born to James and Deloris. James Jordan was a mechanic and Deloris Jordan was a bank teller. Soon after Michael's birth, James and Deloris felt that the streets of Brooklyn were unsafe to ...
43. Chris Tucker
Actor | Rush Hour 2
At one point in time, Chris Tucker was the highest-paid actor in Hollywood.
Tucker was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Mary Louise (Bryant) and Norris Tucker, who owned a janitorial service. After graduating from high school, Tucker made a change to move to Hollywood from Georgia to pursue a career in ...
44. Sinbad
Actor | Jingle All the Way
Sinbad was born in Benton Harbor, Michigan to two parents, Louise and the Baptist Rev. Dr. Donald Beckley Adkins and was then known as David Adkins. He is primarily known as an actor and somewhat a writer and proved his comedic acting style in House Guest (1994), Jingle All the Way (1996), First ...
45. Idris Elba
Actor | Beasts of No Nation
An only child, Idrissa Akuna Elba was born and raised in London, England. His father, Winston, is from Sierra Leone and worked at Ford Dagenham; his mother, Eve, is from Ghana and had a clerical duty. Idris attended school in Canning Town, where he first became involved in acting, before he dropped...
46. James Avery
Actor | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Although known as the uncle/patriarch and judge "Philip Banks" on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990), James Avery was a classically trained actor and scholar. A native of Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA, he joined the US Navy after graduating high school and served in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969. Upon...
47. Alfonso Ribeiro
Actor | The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Alfonso Ribeiro was born in New York on September 21, 1971. Alfonso's family is from Trinidad & Tobago. Although rumor has been that he is of Dominican descent, he has stated in an interview that this is false. Neither he nor his family are from the Dominican Republic; they originate from Trinidad ...
48. DJ Jazzy Jeff
Actor | The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
DJ Jazzy Jeff was born on January 15, 1965 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He is an actor and composer, known for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990), Strange Days (1995) and The Parent Trap (1998). He has been married to Lynette C. Jackson since July 31, 2010. They have two children.
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