Halle Berry

Halle Maria Berry is an American actress and producer born on August 14, 1966, in Cleveland, Ohio. She began her career in modeling and beauty pageants during the 1980s, winning Miss Teen All American 1985 and Miss Ohio USA 1986. She was the first runner-up in the Miss USA 1986 pageant and placed sixth in Miss World 1986, becoming the first African-American contestant to represent the United States in the Miss World competition.

Berry was born Maria Halle Berry to Judith Ann, a psychiatric nurse, and Jerome Jesse Berry, a hospital attendant and bus driver. Her name was legally changed to Halle Maria Berry at age five, taken from Halle's Department Store in Cleveland. After her parents divorced when she was four, she and her older sister Heidi Berry-Henderson were raised exclusively by their mother in Oakwood, Ohio. She attended Bedford High School, where she participated as a cheerleader, honor student, newspaper editor, and prom queen, before continuing her studies at Cuyahoga Community College.

Moving to New York City in 1989 to pursue acting, Berry made her film debut in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (1991). She quickly secured roles in films such as Strictly Business (1991), Boomerang (1992) alongside Eddie Murphy, The Flintstones (1994), Losing Isaiah (1995), Executive Decision (1996), and Bulworth (1998). In 1999, Berry achieved critical recognition when she introduced, co-produced, and starred in the HBO television film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, earning both a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.

In 2000, Berry gained mainstream global recognition playing the superhero Storm in X-Men, a role she reprised in X2 (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). Her portrayal of Leticia Musgrove in Monster's Ball (2001) earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress, making her the first African-American woman to win the award. She subsequently starred as Bond girl Jinx in Die Another Day (2002), appeared in the thriller Gothika (2003), and played the title role in Catwoman (2004).

Berry continued taking on diverse film and television roles, including the television film Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005) and feature films such as Perfect Stranger (2007), Things We Lost in the Fire (2007), Cloud Atlas (2012), and The Call (2013). For her leading role in the independent drama Frankie & Alice (2010), which she also produced, she received a Golden Globe nomination and an African-American Film Critics Association Award.

In addition to her acting work, Berry launched her production company, 606 Films, in 2014 and produced and starred in the CBS science fiction series Extant (2014–2015). She appeared in high-profile action films including Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019), and made her directorial debut with the Netflix film Bruised (2020). Berry has also been a spokesmodel for Revlon since 1996 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007.