Taraji P. Henson Biography And Net Worth

Who is Taraji P. Henson?

Taraji Penda Henson is an American actress. She studied acting at Howard University and began her Hollywood career in guest roles on several television shows before making her breakthrough in Baby Boy (2001).

She played a prostitute in Hustle & Flow (2005) and a single mother of a disabled child in David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2010, she appeared in the action comedy Date Night and the drama The Karate Kid, and in 2016, she starred as mathematician Katherine Johnson in the critically acclaimed drama Hidden Figures.

In 2016, Time magazine named Henson one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Later that year, she released a New York Times best-selling autobiography titled Around the Way Girl.

Bio Data

Biography

Taraji Penda Henson was born September 11, 1970, in Southeast Washington, D.C., the daughter of Bernice (née Gordon), a corporate manager at Woodward & Lothrop, and Boris Lawrence Henson, a janitor and metal fabricator. She has often spoken of the influence of her maternal grandmother, Patsy Ballard, who accompanied her at the Academy Awards the year she was nominated. Her first and middle names are of Swahili origin: Taraji (“hope”) and Penda (“love”). According to a mitochondrial DNA analysis, her matrilineal lineage can be traced to the Masa people of Cameroon. She said North Pole explorer Matthew Henson was “the brother of my great-great-grandfather.”

Henson graduated from Oxon Hill High School in Oxon Hill, Maryland, in 1988. She attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, where she intended to study electrical engineering, before transferring to Howard University to study drama. To pay for college, she worked mornings as a secretary at The Pentagon and evenings as a singing-dancing waitress on a dinner cruise ship, the Spirit of Washington.

Career

Henson received her SAG membership card in the early 1990s for doing three roles as a background performer. Her first prominent role was in the 2001 comedy-drama film Baby Boy, where she portrayed Yvette, alongside singer Tyrese Gibson.

In 2005, Henson was in the independent film Hustle & Flow as Shug, the love interest of Terrence Howard, who portrayed the male lead DJay. She made her singing debut in the film, which was nominated for two Academy Awards and won one. In 2008, she appeared with Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, where she played Queenie, Benjamin’s mother, and for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In an interview with Lauren Viera of The Chicago Tribune, she noted that “Queenie is the embodiment of unconditional love.”

Henson acted in two Tyler Perry films, The Family That Preys in 2008 and I Can Do Bad All By Myself in 2009. In 2010, she appeared in the remake of The Karate Kid with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. Though reviews were lacklustre, the film was a commercial success.

In 2011, Henson starred as Tiffany Rubin in the Lifetime Movie Network film Taken from Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story. It was based on true events in the life of a New York woman whose son, Kobe, was abducted by his biological father to South Korea. Her portrayal of Rubin received positive reviews and earned her several award nominations, including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.

In 2012, Henson was in the large ensemble cast film Think Like a Man, based on Steve Harvey’s 2009 book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. She reprised the role in the film’s sequel, Think Like a Man Too, released in June 2014.

In 2016, Henson starred in the biographical drama film Hidden Figures, a major box-office success nominated for numerous awards, including three Oscars.

In January 2018, she starred in Sony Screen Gems’s thriller-drama film Proud Mary, as a hit woman whose life is turned around when she meets a young boy who awakens the maternal instinct she never knew she had. In March, she starred in the film Tyler Perry’s Acrimony as a faithful wife who, after tiring of standing by her husband, is enraged when she believes herself betrayed. In November, she voiced the character Yesss in Disney’s Ralph Breaks the Internet, a sequel to the studio’s Wreck-It Ralph.

In February 2019, Henson starred in What Men Want (based on the 2000 Mel Gibson romantic comedy What Women Want) as a female sports agent, looked down upon by male colleagues, who gains the power to hear men’s thoughts. In April 2019, she starred in the historical drama The Best of Enemies, portraying civil rights activist Ann Atwater.

Henson is also slated to star in and produce The Emmett Till Story, a film about Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black Chicago teen who was abducted, tortured, murdered, and dumped in a river by two white men in rural Mississippi in 1955. Henson will play Till’s mother, Mamie.

Net Worth

Taraji P. Henson is worth the whopping sum of $25 Million dollars.

Personal Life

Taraji Henson is a Christian and considers acting to be a spiritual experience. In 1994, Henson gave birth to her son Marcell. His father, Henson’s high-school sweetheart William LaMarr Johnson, was murdered in 2003.

Henson posed nude for the May issue of Allure magazine in 2012. In February 2015, Henson was featured in an ad for the NOH8 Campaign supporting the LGBT community. In late 2017, she switched to a vegan diet.

As a supporter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Henson appeared nude in an ad for the I’d Rather Be Naked Than Wear Fur campaign in January 2011. She joined PETA again for their 2013 campaign, “Be an Angel for Animals”, where Henson posed with her family dog Uncle Willie. “Chained dogs suffer day in and day out,” the ad stated. “They are cold, hungry, thirsty, vulnerable, and lonely. Keep them inside, where it’s safe and warm.”

On May 13, 2018, Henson got engaged to former NFL player Kelvin Hayden. She disclosed the end of their engagement during the October 19, 2020, episode of The Breakfast Club.

FAQs

What is Taraji’s net worth?

Taraji is worth $25 million dollars. She’s a well-known figure in the entertainment Industry.

Is Taraji a doctor?

Taraji Henson received an honorary doctorate from Howard University.

What is the meaning of the name Taraji?

Taraji means Hope and faith. The name’s origin is African

More Articles on RNN

• Dakota Johnson’s Biography And Net Worth
• Hamish Harding’s Biography and Net Worth
• Antonio Banderas Biography And Net Worth
• Julia Ormond’s Biography And Net Worth