Taraji P. Henson was born in 1970 in Southeast Washington, D.C. Her mother, Bernice Gordon, worked as a corporate manager at Woodward & Lothrop, while her father, Boris Lawrence Henson, was a metal fabricator and janitor. Her first and middle names are derived from Swahili—Taraji means “hope,” and Penda means “love.” Her ancestry has been traced to the Masa people of Cameroon. Henson has also claimed that famed North Pole explorer Matthew Henson was her great-great-grandfather’s brother.
She graduated from Oxon Hill High School in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Initially, she enrolled at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University to study electrical engineering but later transferred to Howard University to pursue a degree in drama. To support herself through college, she worked as a secretary during the day and as a singing-dancing waitress on a dinner cruise ship in the evenings.
Henson began her Hollywood career with guest roles in various television shows and films. Her breakthrough came with the 2001 film Baby Boy, where she starred opposite Tyrese Gibson. She gained further attention for her role as Shug in Hustle & Flow (2005) and for portraying Queenie in David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), a performance that earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
In 2010, she appeared in the action-comedy Date Night and co-starred in the remake of The Karate Kid alongside Jaden Smith. In 2012, she joined the ensemble cast of the romantic comedy Think Like a Man and reprised her role in its 2014 sequel.
Taraji P. Henson has had an extensive television career, with notable recurring roles in series such as The Division, Boston Legal, and Eli Stone. One of her most acclaimed roles came when she portrayed Detective Jocelyn Carter in the CBS drama Person of Interest.
Her career reached new heights when she played the iconic character Cookie Lyon in the Fox drama series Empire (2015–2020). For her performance, she won a Golden Globe Award and a Critics’ Choice Television Award and was nominated for an Emmy Award multiple times. In 2016, Time magazine included her in its annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.
| Birth Date: | 11 Sep, 1970 |
| Age: | 49 yrs |
| Occupations: | Actor Singer Television actor Film actor |
| Citizenship: | United States of America |
| Birth Place: | Washington, D.C. |
| residence: | Washington, D.C. |
| Gender: | Female |
| Description: | American actress |
| Net Worth 2021: | 25 million |
