Trivia

Received her Master's degree in Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama (1983).

Received her Bachelor's degree in African-American studies from Yale University (1980).

Received an Honorary Degree from Howard University. Chadwick Boseman was the student assigned to escort her around the campus.

Angela and her husband, Courtney B. Vance, became the parents of twins, Bronwyn Golden and Slater Josiah, on January 27, 2006 in California through a surrogate.

As of 2005, she is the first and only African-American recipient of the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, as Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993).

Was offered the role of Leticia Musgrove in Monster's Ball (2001), but she turned it down as she did not want to perform nude. As a result Halle Berry, who went on to become the first African-American actress to win the Best Actress Oscar for her performance, was cast instead.

In 1974, she began to consider acting as a career choice after an 11th-grade class trip to Washington, D.C. during which she saw actor James Earl Jones perform in a Kennedy Center production of the play "Of Mice and Men".

Her performance as Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) (1993) was ranked at #95 on Premiere Magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Film Performances of all time.

Is one of 10 African-American actresses to be nominated for the Best Actress Oscar. The others in chronological order are: Dorothy Dandridge, Diana Ross, Cicely Tyson, Diahann Carroll, Whoopi Goldberg, Halle Berry, Gabourey Sidibe, Viola Davis and Quvenzhané Wallis.

Played Cuba Gooding Jr.'s mother in Boyz n the Hood (1991). 25 years later, she played his sister in American Horror Story (2011).

Bassett has built her career around playing some of the most celebrated real life, pioneering black women of the twentieth century. She was Oscar-nominated and won both the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture-Comedy/Musical and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture for her star-making performance as Tina Turner/Anna Mae Bullock in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993). She won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for her work as the late-Dr. Betty Shabazz (widow of slain civil rights pioneer Malcolm X) in Spike Lee's Malcolm X (1992). She later played Dr. Shabazz in a cameo appearance in Mario Van Peebles' Panther (1995). She delivered the only three-dimensional performance in the 1992 ABC miniseries about The Jackson Five and their family, The Jacksons: An American Dream (1992). In 1999, she played Janet Williams--the principal of the school where Roberta Guaspari taught in Music of the Heart (1999). She was also in the running to play Dorothy Dandridge, until Halle Berry beat her to the punch with HBO's Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999). Her first of four Emmy nominations to date was for her lead role in The Rosa Parks Story (2002).

She was once employed as a photo researcher at U.S. News & World Report magazine.

Has played Muslim activist Betty Shabazz in two different movies: Malcolm X (1992) and Panther (1995).

In 1993, she and Jenifer Lewis played daughter and mother in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), which earned her an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe Award. Nearly fifteen years later, they both teamed up with Oscar nominee Margaret Avery in Meet the Browns (2008), in which Bassett and Lewis played sisters.

Was considered for the role of Oda Mae Brown in Ghost (1990) but Whoopi Goldberg, who went on to win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance, was cast instead.

DNA testing on Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2012) showed her African ancestry to be from Nigeria, with roots from Benin and Togo, Cameroon and Congo, Mali, southeastern Bantu (Angola), Ivory Coast and Ghana, Senegal, and the South Central hunter-gatherers.

Received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California in March 20, 2008.

Bassett's line "Right here! Right now!" from Strange Days (1995) was sampled as the only 'lyrics' used repeatedly in the song "Right Here, Right Now" by Fatboy Slim.

Won the 2002 Lena Horne Award for Outstanding Career Achievements in the Field of Entertainment.

Lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband Courtney B. Vance and their children.

She has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Boyz n the Hood (1991) and Malcolm X (1992).

Bassett was originally slated to work with Brandon Lee in "Simon Says", sequel to Rapid Fire (1992). However, Lee passed away in March of '93 & the script was rewritten into Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995).

As a result of her Best Supporting Actress nomination for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever as Queen Ramonda, Bassett became the first person to receive an acting nomination at the Academy Awards for a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Angela Bassett is the first person to receive an acting nomination at the Academy Awards for a role within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Writer-director Quentin Tarantino would have cast her in the title role of Jackie Brown (1997) if he could have afforded her at the time.

Attended and graduated from Boca Ciega High School in Gulfport, Florida in 1976.

Was initiated as an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. on July 13, 2013.

Endorsed Kamala Harris for president in 2024.

Her mother, Betty Jane (Gilbert) Bassett, passed away on June 22, 2014.

Born on exactly the same date as Madonna.

Buenos Aires, Argentina: Is a member of the international jury at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema. (April 2010)

Friends with Nancy Wilson, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and Loni Love.

She was mentioned in the comedy drama film A Christmas Tale (2008).

Appeared in three films by writer-director John Sayles: City of Hope (1991), Passion Fish (1992), and Sunshine State (2002).

Had to be dubbed for the singing portions of What's Love Got to Do With It (1993). Though Bassett can dance, she is not a trained singer.