Rise to Fame
Most people remember the wrong team from Bring It On. Union played Isis, captain of the East Compton Clovers, the Black squad whose routines had been stolen by the suburban white girls, and she was the one worth watching. She's called it the biggest boost of her career. The years before had been supporting parts in She's All That and 10 Things I Hate About You, a short-lived CBS drama, a Friends guest arc. Bad Boys II put her in front of Will Smith and a $273 million box office. But Isis was the role that made the industry take her seriously as a lead.
In the Spotlight
At BET, she landed her own show after losing the Scandal lead to Kerry Washington, then sued the network for breach of contract when they restructured her pay mid-run. At NBC, she lasted one season of America's Got Talent before NBC cut her, reportedly after she raised concerns about on-set racism, including a Jay Leno joke she flagged and a producer telling her a Black child wouldn't connect with audiences. NBCUniversal found no 'systemic racism.' NBC settled for undisclosed terms described as 'significant.' She goes in, raises the problem, and ends up in court.
Side Notes
She has said she had eight or nine miscarriages before a diagnosis of adenomyosis finally gave a name to why. Her doctor told her the condition made pregnancy nearly impossible to sustain, and she resisted the surrogacy recommendation for close to a year before agreeing. Daughter Kaavia James arrived via surrogate in November 2018, when Union was 46. She's described the whole journey as public humiliation she'll 'never have peace with.' The fact that she keeps talking about it anyway, publicly and in detail, is what makes the advocacy land.