Angela Bassett Biography, Net Worth, Age, Husband, Kids

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Angela Bassett Biography

Angela Evelyn Bassett (born August 16, 1958) is an actress, director, and producer from the United States.

Bassett has received multiple awards for her portrayals of African-American female leads, including three Black Reel Awards, a Golden Globe Award, seven NAACP Image Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as nominations for an Academy Award and seven Primetime Emmy Awards.

Bassett began her acting career after graduating from Yale University in the 1980s. Following a few lesser appearances, notably Reva Styles in Boyz n the Hood (1991), Bassett made her mark as singer Tina Turner in the biopic What is Love Got to Do with It (1993), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

She went on to play Betty Shabazz in both Malcolm X (1992) and Panther (1995), Katherine Jackson in The Jacksons: An American Dream (1992), Voletta Wallace in Notorious (2009), Amanda Waller in Green Lantern (2011), and Coretta Scott King in Betty & Coretta (2013).

Bassett was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her depiction of Rosa Parks in the television film The Rosa Parks Story (2002).

Bassett was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her recurring performance on the FX horror anthology series American Horror Story: Coven in 2013.

She returned as Desiree Dupree in Freak Show is fourth season as a series regular, for which she was nominated for another Primetime Emmy Award.

Angela Bassett Early Life

Bassett was born in New York City, the daughter of civil servant Betty Jane (née Gilbert) and preacher’s son Daniel Benjamin Bassett.

Bassett was given her middle name in honour of her aunt Evelyn. Bassett’s mother fell pregnant ten months after she was born, and Bassett’s sister D’nette was born. Bassett claims that the pregnancy “just made matters worse,” prompting her parents to transfer her to Golden, her father’s sister, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Her aunt “liked children and was terrific with them,” despite the fact that she did not have any of her own.

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Bassett was picked up by her mother at the age of four after her parents divorced, and she moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, with her sister.

Bassett did not see her father for several years, until she attended the burial of her grandmother. Bassett met Jean, her father’s daughter from his first marriage, who was several years older than Bassett at twelve years old.

Angela Bassett Education

After graduating from Jordan Park Elementary School, she was bused out of her neighbourhood to begin seventh grade at Disston Middle School.

She started in 1970, a year before busing was adopted to integrate public schools in St. Petersburg for the first time. She was bused to Azalea Middle School for eighth and ninth grade after finishing seventh grade.

Bassett’s mother became more engaged in her daughter’s grades and informed her and her sister that the two would be attending college together.

Bassett graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in African-American studies in 1980. Despite resistance from her paternal aunt, who cautioned her not to “waste” her “Yale education on theatre,” she received an M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama in 1983. She was Bassett’s lone family member who had attended both college and graduate school.

Bassett met her future husband Courtney B. Vance, a 1986 Yale theatre school alumnus, at Yale. Actor Charles S. Dutton was also a classmate of Bassett’s.

Bassett worked as a picture researcher and a receptionist for a beauty salon after graduation. Bassett began looking for acting opportunities in New York theatres right away.

In 1985, she performed in J. E. Franklin’s Black Girl at Second Stage Theatre, which was one of her first New York appearances. Under the supervision of her long-time tutor Lloyd Richards, she appeared in two August Wilson pieces at the Yale Repertory Theatre.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984) and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1985) were two Wilson plays that featured Bassett (1986). She returned to the Wilson canon in 2006, performing alongside longtime colleague Laurence Fishburne in Fences at the Pasadena Playhouse in California.

Angela Bassett Career

Bassett made her debut appearance on television in 1985, playing a prostitute in the made-for-TV film Doubletake.

She made her film debut in F/X (1986), as a news reporter, for which she was forced to join the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).

Bassett relocated to Los Angeles in 1988 in search of additional acting opportunities, appearing in guest roles on shows such as A Man Called Hawk and 227. (both 1989).

Angela Bassett Personal Life

In 1997, Bassett married actor Courtney B. Vance. They co-starred in a production of His Girl Friday at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the summer of 2005. A surrogate carried the couple’s twins, son Slater Josiah Vance and daughter Bronwyn Golden Vance.

Bassett is a big supporter of artistic initiatives, especially for kids. She attends events for children with diabetes and those in foster care on a yearly basis. She is a member of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ and a UNICEF Ambassador for the United States. Bassett is a supporter of the Royal Theater Boys & Girls Club in St. Petersburg, Florida, where she grew up.

Angela Bassett Net Worth

Angela Bassett is an actress from the United States with a nett worth of $25 million. That is her joint net worth with her husband, fellow actor Courtney B.Vance, whom she has been married to for over 25 years.

Angela is most recognised for portraying historical personalities like Tina Turner, Betty Shabazz, and Katherine Jackson in biopics. Bassett’s career has soared since its inception in the 1980s, and she has won numerous honours while also being nominated for a slew of others.

Angela Bassett Age

Born on August 16, 1958 (age 63)

Angela Bassett Husband

Courtney B. Vance (M. 1997)

Angela Bassett Kids

Bronwyn Vance, Slater Vance