Tracee Joy Silberstein, known professionally as Tracee Ellis Ross, is an American actress. She is known for her lead roles in the television series Girlfriends (2000–2008) and Black-ish (2014–2022) receiving nominations for five Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the latter.
Melina Matsoukas is an American music video, film, commercial and television director. She is a two-time Grammy Award winner and four-time MTV Video Music Awards winner for her "We Found Love" and "Formation" music videos. She was honored with the Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal by the American Film Institute in 2019. Her directorial debut in film was Queen & Slim, starring Jodie Turner-Smith and Daniel Kaluuya, and written by Lena Waithe. She then worked as executive producer and director for television series Insecure, being nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2020.
Tiffany Ronelia Haddish is an American stand-up comedian and actress. Her breakthrough came in with a leading role in the comedy film Girls Trip (2017), which earned her several accolades and was included on The New Yorker's list of the best film performances of the 21st century. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2018, and The Hollywood Reporter listed her among the 100 most powerful people in entertainment in both 2018 and 2019.
Trevor Noah is a South African comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and former television host. He was the host of The Daily Show, an American late-night talk show and satirical news program on Comedy Central, from 2015 to 2022. Noah has won various awards, including a Primetime Emmy Award from 11 nominations. He was named one of "The 35 Most Powerful People in New York Media" by The Hollywood Reporter in 2017 and 2018. In 2018, Time magazine named him one of the hundred most influential people in the world. In 2023, he won the Erasmus Prize.
Jo-Issa Rae Diop, credited professionally as Issa Rae, is an American actress, writer, and producer. Rae first garnered attention for her work on the YouTube web series Awkward Black Girl. Since 2011, Rae has continued to develop her YouTube channel, which features various short films, web series, and other content created by black people.
Teyonah Parris is an American actress. A graduate of Juilliard School, she began acting in 2010. Her first prominent role was playing secretary Dawn Chambers in the AMC drama series Mad Men (2012–2015) and starring in the 2014 independent film Dear White People. Since then, Parris has appeared in Spike Lee's film Chi-Raq (2015), the drama series Empire (2014) and the drama film If Beale Street Could Talk (2018).
Danielle Deadwyler is an American actress. She began her career appearing on Atlanta stage, including in the 2009 production of For Colored Girls, and made her screen debut in the 2012 drama film A Cross to Bear. Deadwyler appeared in the primetime series The Haves and the Have Nots (2015–2017), the series P-Valley (2020), the miniseries Station Eleven (2021–2022), and the miniseries From Scratch (2022).
Girls Trip is a 2017 American comedy film starring Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Tiffany Haddish, and Jada Pinkett Smith. The film is directed by Malcolm D. Lee and written by Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver, from a story by the pair and Erica Rivinoja, who based the script off their own experiences with their female friends. Along with Lee, the film was produced by Will Packer under his Will Packer Productions banner. It follows a group of four friends who go to New Orleans to attend the Essence Music Festival in order to reconnect after a long time.
Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C. J. Walker is an American drama streaming television limited series, based on the biography On Her Own Ground by A'Lelia Bundles, that premiered on March 20, 2020, on Netflix. It received generally positive reviews with praise for Octavia Spencer's performance; however it received criticism for various historical inaccuracies and artistic licence. For her performance, Spencer received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.
Tiffany Haddish is an American stand-up comedian, actress, and author. Her breakthrough came in 2017, when she garnered critical acclaim for her performance in the comedy film Girls Trip. Haddish has won a Primetime Emmy Award for her work as a host on a Saturday Night Live episode, and she has published a memoir, The Last Black Unicorn. She starred in the TBS series The Last O.G., and executive produced and voiced Tuca in the Netflix/Adult Swim animated series Tuca & Bertie. In 2021, she won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for her comedy album Black Mitzvah, making her the second African-American woman to win this prize after Whoopi Goldberg in 1986.
