Danielle Brooks

Danielle Brooks (born September 17, 1989) is an American actress and singer. Her breakthrough role was as prison inmate Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson in the Netflix comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019).

In 2015, Brooks made her Broadway debut in the musical revival of The Color Purple as Sofia, for which she received a nomination for a Tony Award and won a Grammy Award. In 2023, Brooks reprised her role as Sofia in the film adaptation of The Color Purple and was nominated for an Academy Award, British Academy Film Award, and Golden Globe Award for her performance. In 2021, she played gospel singer Mahalia Jackson in the made-for-television biographical film Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia, for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie as an executive producer.

In 2022, Brooks hosted Netflix's reality series Instant Dream Home and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Daytime Program Host. The same year Brooks starred in the superhero series Peacemaker (2022–present), and returned to Broadway in the revival of the August Wilson play The Piano Lesson, for which she received a Drama Desk Award nomination.

Early life and education
Brooks was born in Augusta, Georgia, and grew up in Simpsonville, South Carolina, in a Christian family. Her father Dunnel is a BMW worker and a deacon and her mother LaRita is a teacher and a minister. She began acting at the age of six in a nativity play put on by her church. For her final two years of high school, she attended South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts & Humanities, a selective arts high school. She studied drama at the Juilliard School and graduated in 2011.

2013–2019: Breakthrough
After graduating from Juilliard, Brooks won roles in two theater productions: the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Servant of Two Masters, and Blacken the Bubble. She left both productions in 2013 to join the cast of the Netflix-produced television series Orange Is the New Black, a show about a women's prison, based on Piper Kerman's memoir of the same name. Brooks played as Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson. Her character originally was intended to be featured in the show for only two episodes, but was written into the rest of the first season and subsequent seasons. While starring in show, Brooks still worked on second job due low-paid salary. It an interview to The New Yorker she said that she was paid less on the final season than the lead child actors made that same year on Stranger Things. Taystee's onscreen best friend Poussey is played by Samira Wiley, with whom Brooks has been friends since they met while studying together at Juilliard.

Brooks' performance on the show has been favorably reviewed by TV critics,  with one writer calling her "the breakout actress of the show and one of the most refreshing and exciting new talents of 2013." Brooks was upgraded from a recurring cast member to a series regular for the show's second season. For her performance, Brooks received three NAACP Image Awards nominations; one for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2016, and two for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series. She also received the 2014 Young Hollywood Awards for Breakthrough and three Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.

In September 2013, Brooks was cast in a third-season episode of the HBO series Girls, becoming the first African-American actress on the show. The following year she made her big screen debut appearing in the drama film Time Out of Mind. In 2015 she starred in the comedy-drama film I Dream Too Much. From 2015 to 2017 she also appeared in Netflix series Master of None. She competed against co-star Uzo Aduba in an episode of Spike's Lip Sync Battle that aired on June 28, 2017. Brooks won with performances of Ciara's "1, 2 Step" and Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer". She done voice-over work in the 2016 animated feature The Angry Birds Movie and later appeared in films Sadie (2018), Clemency (2019) and The Day Shall Come (2019).

Brooks made her Broadway debut in the 2015 revival of The Color Purple as Sofia alongside Jennifer Hudson and Cynthia Erivo. The musical opened on December 10, 2015, at the Bernard B. Jacobs. Brooks received good reviews for her performance, and received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. In June 2019, she played Beatrice in The Public Theater's production of Much Ado About Nothing, receiving a Drama League Award nomination for her performance. Also in 2019, Brooks recorded her first single titled "Black Woman".

2020–present
In 2020, Brooks co-starred opposite Tony Hale in the comedy film Eat Wheaties!. In 2021 she played gospel singer Mahalia Jackson in the made-for-television biographical film Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia, for which she received nominations for Critics' Choice Awards, Satellite Awards, and NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special, and an Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie as an executive producer. From 2021 to 2022, Brooks voiced Lillie Carter-Grant, mother of protagonist Karma and doctor, in the animated series Karma's World. In 2022, Brooks was cast in James Gunn's Max superhero series Peacemaker playing the role of Leota Adebayo, Amanda Waller's (Viola Davis) daughter. The series is spin-off of Gunn's film The Suicide Squad (2021) and is the first television series to be included in the DCEU. In an 2022 interview, Brooks revealed that Gunn was a big fan of Orange is the New Black and wrote the part of Adebayo with her in mind. The role gained her a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television nomination in 2022.

In 2022, Brooks starred as Berniece in a Broadway revival of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson starting on September 19, 2022, directed by LaTanya Richardson Jackson; the production received mixed reviews from critics. Brooks received a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play nomination for her performance. In 2022, Brooks also hosted the Netflix reality series Instant Dream Home and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Daytime Program Host.

In 2023, Brooks starred in The Color Purple, a feature adaptation of the musical of the same name, directed by Blitz Bazawule. She received positive reviews for her performance. Film critic Peyton Robinson from RogerEbert.com wrote in her review: "Brooks, Tony-nominated for her onstage depiction, is the film’s no-holds-barred knockout, giving an undeniably crowd-pleasing performance. Her charismatic presence is spellbinding, and her emotional dexterity in covering the full spectrum of affectations, from tear-jerking to side-splitting, is a joy to witness. Sofia is heralded for her refusal to be ignored, underestimated, or disrespected, and Brooks’ performance demands the same." Alissa Wilkinson from The New York Times called her "incredible", while Ella Kemp from Evening Standard wrote: "Brooks’ star power is infectious". The performance gained her nominations for an Academy Award, British Academy Film Award, and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Personal life
On July 2, 2019, Brooks announced that she was pregnant with her first child. In November, she gave birth to a girl. She married Dennis Gelin in January 2022 in Miami, Florida.