Alfre Ette Woodard (born November 8, 1952) is an American actress.
Personal life
Woodard was born in
Tulsa, Oklahoma to
African American parents: Constance, a homemaker, and Marion H. Woodard, an entrepreneur and
interior designer.
[Alfre Woodard Biography (1952-)] Woodard attended Bishop Kelley High School, a private Catholic school in Tulsa. She studied drama at
Boston University, from where she later graduated. Woodard lives in
Santa Monica, California, with her husband, writer Roderick Spencer, and their two adopted children, Mavis and Duncan. Woodard follows
Christian Science.
[The religion of Alfre Woodard, actress]
She is a founder and board member of Artists for a New South Africa and is also active in the Democratic Party. In February 2009 she joined a group of American film directors and actors on a cultural trip to Iran at the invitation of the "House of Cinema" forum in Tehran.
[Iranians newspaper, Ashburn, Virginia, March 6, 2009]
Career
Woodard has made numerous guest appearances in television series and
motion pictures. She was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1983 film
Cross Creek. She also appeared as
Lily Sloane,
Zefram Cochrane's assistant in
Star Trek: First Contact and
Down in the Delta as a single alcoholic mother from Chicago forced to spend a summer with her uncle in Mississippi.
Woodard's television credits include
Hill Street Blues,
St. Elsewhere,
Puss in Boots,
L.A. Law, and
Homicide: Life on the Street. Woodard has won four Primetime Emmy Awards for her television performances in
Hill Street Blues,
L.A. Law, the television movie
Miss Evers' Boys, and
The Practice. She has also received Emmy nominations for
Words by Heart,
St. Elsewhere,
Unnatural Causes, a second for
St. Elsewhere,
A Mother's Courage: The Mary Thomas Story,
The Piano Lesson,
Gulliver's Travels,
Homicide: Life on the Street, and
The Water Is Wide. From 2005 to 2006, Woodard starred in the
ABC series
Desperate Housewives, and received another Emmy nomination for her role as
Betty Applewhite. Woodard has appeared on stage in such plays as
Map of the World,
Drowning Crow,
Me & Bessie, and
The Winter's Tale. She starred in
Tyler Perry's latest film
The Family That Preys.
Alfre Woodard's latest film is the upcoming
American Violet, where she plays the mother of a 24-year-old African American woman who is wrongfully swept up in a drug raid.
Awards and nominations
Awards
Nominations
Filmography
