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For her role as Cookie Lyon on Empire, Taraji P. Henson was nominated for an Emmy® Award in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She won the BET Award for Best Actress, the Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series and she is nominated for a TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Drama. She also won the NAACP Image Award for Entertainer of the Year.

Prior to Empire, Henson earned an Academy Award® nomination for Best Supporting Actress opposite Brad Pitt in David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. She also received an Emmy® Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie in the made-for-cable film Taken from Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story. She starred as Detective Joss Carter on the J.J. Abrams-produced crime drama Person of Interest, and was awarded the 2013 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

Empire marks Henson’s reunion with co-star Terrence Howard; the two worked together on the Academy Award®-nominated film Hustle & Flow. For her performance in the movie as Shug, Henson was named Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Feature Film by the Black Movie Awards and received the BET Best Actress Award. She made her singing debut in the film and performed the Academy Award®-winning song “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” during the Academy Awards® telecast in 2012.

Henson was seen in the box office hit No Good Deed, and can also be seen in Term Life with Vince Vaughn. She starred in the comedy hits Think Like a Man and Think Like a Man Too. She also starred in From the Rough, the true story of Catana Starks, the Tennessee State University men’s golf coach who was the first woman coach to win an NCAA championship.

Henson’s many film credits include Larry Crowne, The Karate Kid, Date Night, I Can Do Bad All by Myself, Peep World, The Good Doctor, Once Fallen, Talk to Me, Smokin’ Aces, Not Easily Broken, Hurricane Season, The Family That Preys, Four Brothers, Something New and Baby Boy.

Additional TV credits include Boston Legal and Eli Stone. On stage, she was seen in Above the Fold and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.

Henson, who has a strong dedication to helping disabled and less fortunate children, was born and raised in Washington, D.C. She attended Howard University.