Alfre Woodard

Alfre Woodard is an American actress, producer, and political activist. She got her first break in Remember My Name (1978).

She has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Grammy Awards and eighteen Emmy Awards (winning four); additionally, she received a Golden Globe Award and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.

For Netflix, she in known for her role in the 2017 drama film, Burning Sands, in which she plays Professor Hughes. She also starred as Juanita in the 2019 drama film Juanita. She played Mariah Dillard in the Netflix series Marvel's Luke Cage. In 2021, she portrayed Marian in the drama film Fatherhood also starring Kevin Hart. She starred as Margaret Cahill in the 2022 action film The Gray Man.

Biography
She was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the youngest of three children of Constance, a homemaker, and Marion H. Woodard, an interior designer. She was named by her godmother, who claimed she saw a vision of Alfre's name written out in gold letters. A former high school cheerleader and track star, she got the acting bug after being persuaded to audition for a school play by a nun at her school. She went on to study acting at Boston University and enjoyed a brief stint on Broadway before moving to Los Angeles, California.

Woodard began her acting career in theater. After her breakthrough role in the Off-Broadway play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf (1977). In the 1990s, Woodard starred in films such as Grand Canyon (1991), Heart and Souls (1993), Crooklyn (1994), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), Primal Fear (1996) and Star Trek: First Contact (1996).

Movies

 * Burning Sands
 * Juanita
 * Fatherhood
 * The Gray Man

Series

 * Luke Cage