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Halle Berry.

Maria Halle Berry

Halle Berry — Actor
Born Cleveland, United States
Citizenship United States
Age 60 yr Today

17 min read

Reading time

3,209

Words

Published

23

Awards

TL;DR

Halle Berry made history in 2002 as the first African-American woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Monster’s Ball. She began her career winning pageants, then broke through in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever 1991 and starred as Storm in the X-Men franchise. Berry won a Golden Globe for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge 1999 and an Emmy for her television work. As of 2023, she and Michelle Yeoh are the only women of color to have won the Best Actress Oscar.

Identity & family.

KIN · 6

Names, aliases, and relatives of Halle Berry — birth name, kin, and personal ties.

Birth Name Maria Halle Berry
Parents
Judith Ann Hawkins Jerome Jesse Berry
Spouses
Olivier Martinez Eric Benét David Justice
Children
Maceo Martinez

At a glance.

STATS

Halle Berry by the numbers — life, work, and family.

60 Age
23 Awards
3 Marriages
1 Child

Who is Halle Berry?

BIOGRAPHY

Halle Berry — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.

Early life

Halle Berry was born Maria Halle Berry on August 14, 1966 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Judith Ann Hawkins, a psychiatric nurse, and Jerome Jesse Berry, a hospital attendant. Her parents divorced when she was four; her mother raised her in Oakwood, Ohio. In high school, she excelled as a National Honor Society member, editor of the school paper, class president, and prom queen. At seventeen, she won the Miss Teen All-American Pageant in 1985 and was first runner-up in Miss USA in 1986, launching her into modeling and acting.

Career

For her role in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever 1991, Berry reportedly refused to bathe for several days to embody a crack addict. The film was her big-screen breakthrough. Opposite Eddie Murphy, she starred in Boomerang 1992 and played sexy secretary Sharon Stone in The Flintstones 1994. A Golden Globe came in 1999 for her portrayal of Dorothy Dandridge in the HBO film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. She joined the X-Men franchise as Storm in 2000. The next year, Monster’s Ball made her the first African-American to win the Academy Award for Best Actress. Roles in Die Another Day 2002, Gothika 2003, and the critically panned Catwoman 2004 followed. For Catwoman, she accepted the Razzie Award in person. Her directorial debut came with Bruised 2020.

Personal life

Berry’s three marriages were to baseball player David Justice 1993–1997, singer Eric Benét 2001–2005, and actor Olivier Martinez 2013–2016. She has two children: daughter Nahla Aubry born 2008 with model Gabriel Aubry, and son Maceo Martinez born 2013 with Martinez. A domestic violence incident in the early 1990s cost her partial hearing in one ear. In 2000, she pleaded no contest to leaving the scene of a traffic accident and was sentenced to probation, fines, and community service.

Legacy

The only African-American woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress as of 2023, Berry presented the award to Michelle Yeoh when Yeoh won later that year. A role in Die Another Day 2002 made her the first actress to star in a James Bond film after an Oscar win. The Hollywood Walk of Fame honored her with a star in 2007, and Esquire named her Sexiest Woman Alive in 2008. With her Oscar win, Berry broke racial barriers as the first African-American to win Best Actress.

Awards & honors.

AWARDS · 19

Every award, honor, and recognition received by Halle Berry — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.

  • Academy Award for Best Actress
  • National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
  • Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
  • NAACP Image Award for Entertainer of the Year
  • NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
  • Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
  • BET Award for Best Actor & Actress
  • NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
  • Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
  • NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
  • Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress
  • Golden Globe Awards
  • Emmy Award
  • Silver Bear for Best Actress
  • Actor Awards
  • Crystal Award
  • Silver Bear
  • star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
  • Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year

Notable quotes.

QUOTES · 19

A wall of memorable lines from Halle Berry — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.

Did you know?

FACTS · 50

Little-known facts about Halle Berry — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.

You wanted to know.

FAQ · 39

Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Halle Berry.

Audited & updated by

Olivia Brooks

Senior Staff Writer & Biography Editor

Olivia has 6 years of experience writing biographical profiles and still approaches every subject like it's the first one. She covers everyone from debut musicians to Hall of Fame athletes to novelists most people have never heard of. She finds something worth reading in all of them. Her drafts tend to come in already clean, which her editor appreciates. She says good writing is just good thinking written down. Hard to argue with that.

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