Taylour Paige

Taylour Paige-Angulo is an American actress and dancer. She gained widespread recognition for her role as the titular character in the black comedy crime film Zola, for which she won an Independent Spirit Award. Her career includes prominent roles in television series such as Hit the Floor and IT: Welcome to Derry, as well as feature films including Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.

Paige was born on October 5, 1990, in Santa Monica, California, to Reginald Paige and Cheryl Williams. Raised in Inglewood, California, alongside her older brother Travis, she began dance training at age two. Her early instruction included training at Katnap, the Westside Ballet Academy, and the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C. In 2001, she became a student of choreographer Debbie Allen and auditioned for her musical Pearl. Paige graduated from St. Bernard Catholic High School in 2008 and later graduated from Loyola Marymount University. In 2010, she spent three months as a Los Angeles Laker Girl, appearing in a Fox Sports special covering the making of their 2011 calendar.

Following her time as a Laker Girl, Paige appeared in commercial campaigns for brands such as Adidas, Best Buy, McDonald's, Transamerica, and Just Dance 3. She made her film debut as a featured dancer in High School Musical 3: Senior Year in 2008. She then transitioned into screen acting with roles in short films before landing her first major television starring role as Ahsha Hayes in the sports drama series Hit the Floor, appearing from 2013 until her departure in 2016.

In 2016, Paige played the lead character in Stella Meghie's directorial debut, Jean of the Joneses. She subsequently appeared in the 2018 crime drama film White Boy Rick as Cathy Volsan-Curry and made guest appearances in Grey's Anatomy and Ballers. Her breakthrough arrived with the 2020 film Zola, where her performance as the titular lead earned her the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. That same year, she portrayed Dussie Mae in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, receiving an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture.

Paige expanded into vocal performance in May 2022 by featuring on Kendrick Lamar's track "We Cry Together" from the album Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. The song reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100, earned Paige a Grammy Award nomination, and led to her co-starring in its short film adaptation. In November 2022, she was featured in Rihanna's Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 4.

Her subsequent film work includes the female lead in The Toxic Avenger (2023), as well as roles in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Brothers, and The Trainer in 2024. She was cast as Charlotte Hanlon in the HBO supernatural horror series It: Welcome to Derry and starred in the 2026 science fiction comedy film I Love Boosters, directed by Boots Riley.

In her personal life, Paige was in a relationship with actor Jesse Williams from 2019 to 2021. She married fashion designer Gary "Rivington Starchild" Angulo on October 5, 2022, and gave birth to a son in 2025.