Regina King

Regina Rene King (born January 15, 1971) is an American actress, director and producer. She has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and four Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2019, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

King first gained attention for starring in the television sitcom 227 (1985–1990). Her subsequent roles included the film Friday (1995), the animated series The Boondocks (2005–2014), and the crime television series Southland (2009–2013). She received four Primetime Emmy Awards for her performances in the ABC anthology series American Crime (2015–2017), the Netflix miniseries Seven Seconds, and the HBO limited series Watchmen (2019). Her other television roles include the drama series The Leftovers (2015–2017) and the sitcom The Big Bang Theory (2013–2019).

King has also played supporting roles in the drama films Boyz n the Hood (1991), Poetic Justice (1993), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), and Ray (2004), and the comedies Down to Earth (2001), Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2003), A Cinderella Story (2004), and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous (2005). She earned critical acclaim, as well as the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in If Beale Street Could Talk (2018). She then starred in the western The Harder They Fall (2021), played the title role in the biopic Shirley (2024) and played Detective Roman in crime thriller Caught Stealing (2025).

King has directed episodes for several television shows, including Scandal and This Is Us. She has also directed the music video for the 2010 song "Finding My Way Back" by Jaheim. King's feature film directorial debut came with the drama One Night in Miami... (2020), which earned her a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Director.

Regina Rene King was born on January 15, 1971, in Los Angeles County, California, and grew up in View Park–Windsor Hills. King's ancestors were part of the transatlantic slave trade; they originated from Liberia, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. Both of her parents are from the Southern United States, and they later moved to Los Angeles during the Great Migration. Her mother, Gloria Jean (née Cain), was a special education teacher, and her father, Thomas Henry King Jr., was an electrician. King has a younger sister, Reina, who co-starred with her in the Shirley Chisholm Netflix biographical film Shirley. Her parents divorced when she was eight years old. King attended Westchester High School, graduating in 1989. She later studied communications at the University of Southern California for two years before pursuing her passion for acting.

King began her acting career in 1985, playing the role of Brenda Jenkins on the television series 227, a role she played until the show ended in 1990. She went on to appear in the John Singleton films Boyz n the Hood, Poetic Justice, and Higher Learning. In 1995, she was featured in the hit comedy film Friday. The next year, she starred in the Martin Lawrence dark comedy-romance A Thin Line Between Love and Hate as Mia, and she gained fame starring in blockbuster romantic comedy film Jerry Maguire as Marcee Tidwell.

In 1998, she was cast in Tony Scott's film Enemy of the State, receiving her first nomination at the NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture. In the same year, King took part in the films How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Mighty Joe Young, and Love and Action in Chicago. In 2001, King played Sontee Jenkins in Chris and Paul Weitz's Down to Earth, receiving praise from critics for her performance. The following year, she played the main role in television series Leap of Faith.

After taking part in teen romantic comedy film A Cinderella Story, King was cast as Margie Hendrix in the Academy Awards nominated biographical film Ray, about Ray Charles. For her performance in Ray, King won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress, the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress and was part of a cast nomination from the Screen Actors Guild Awards.