Part of Scary Movie featuring Anna Faris, Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans, and Leslie Nielsen.
Rise to Fame
She started as a journalism grad student at NYU, not a struggling actress. Her father died of a stroke while she was still there, and she switched course. The Best Man in 1999 was her film debut, but Scary Movie in 2000 is where she landed, as Brenda Meeks, the loudmouthed moviegoer who kept dying in increasingly absurd ways and kept coming back. She reprised the role through multiple sequels while Hollywood took its time figuring out what to do with the rest of her.
In the Spotlight
Girls Trip (2017) reminded people she could carry a mainstream studio comedy, but Support the Girls the following year is what critics latched onto. Her performance as a harried restaurant manager reportedly made her the first African American actress to win the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. She co-hosted the 2022 Oscars alongside Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes. That's not a slot Hollywood hands to someone it still hasn't figured out. The career arc looks obvious now. It wasn't.
Side Notes
The journalism master's from NYU never got used, but the sensibility didn't go anywhere. When her mother was diagnosed with scleroderma, a rare autoimmune disorder, she joined the Scleroderma Research Foundation board and became an advocate rather than a celebrity donor. Brenda Meeks screamed and died for a living. The woman behind her runs a foundation board.