Academy Award nominated and Golden Globe winning actor, writer, and producer Taraji P. Henson quickly rose to fame after her breakout performance in the critically acclaimed film HUSTLE & FLOW, which earned her and the cast a Screen Actors Guild nomination as well as the BET Award for Best Actress.

Henson recently wrapped her iconic run as “Cookie Lyon” in Fox’s hit musical drama “Empire”, which has earned her three Emmy nominations, a Golden Globe Award, a Critics Choice Award, and three BET Awards. Prior to “Empire”, Henson had recurring roles on “Person of Interes”, “Boston Legal”, and “The Division”.

In 2017, Henson portrayed NASA mathematician Katherine G. Johnson in the Academy Award nominated film “Hidden Figures”. Henson and the cast received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for the film. Other credits include Tyler Perry’s “Acrimony”, “Proud Mary”, “Think Like a Man” with Kevin Hart, “Think Like a Man Too”, “Talk to Me” opposite Don Cheadle, “Smokin’ Aces” with Ben Affleck and Alicia Keys, Tyler Perry’s “The Family that Prays”, “Hurricane Season” opposite Forest Whitaker, “No Good Deed” opposite Idris Elba which opened #1 in the box office, “Larry Crowne” with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, “Taken From Me”, and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” with Brad Pitt, for which she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Henson also lent her voice alongside Sarah Silverman, John C. Reilly, and Gal Gadot in Disney’s “Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck it Ralph 2” which was #1 at the box office three weekends in a row. In 2019, Henson starred in Paramount’s “What Men Want” from director Adam Shankman, and “The Best of Enemies” opposite Sam Rockwell. Following the finale of EMPIRE in 2020, she was seen starring in the Netflix film “Coffee & Kareem” with Ed Helms. In 2022, she will be heard lending her voice to “Minions: The Rise of Gru”. In 2019, Henson received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In Fall 2020, Henson announced her production company TPH Entertainment, which has a first-look deal with Twentieth Century Fox TV. The agreement with Fox will include projects for multiple platforms.

In October 2016, Henson released her New York Times bestselling novel “Around The Way Girl,” a memoir about her family and friends, her determination to make it to Hollywood, and the importance of living your own truth. In “Around The Way Girl,” she reminisces on the world-class theater arts education she received at Howard University, and how she chipped away at Hollywood’s resistance to give women, especially women of color, rich and significant roles. With her iconic humor and honesty, Henson shares the struggles and disappointments of an actor’s journey and shows audiences that she is ever authentic.

In Fall 2018, Henson launched the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation in honor of her late father. The organization provides scholarships to African-American students majoring in mental health, offers mental health services to youth in urban schools, and works to lower the recidivism rates of African-American men and women. Henson, along with her best friend and foundation partner, Tracie Jade, recently cohosted the Facebook Watch series PEACE OF MIND WITH TARAJI, which focuses on mental health issues.

In early 2020, Henson launched her own haircare line, TPH by Taraji, which is exclusively sold at Target. A Washington, D.C. native, Henson currently resides in Los Angeles.

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