Regina King
Regina King in January 2007
Born	January 15, 1971 (1971-01-15) (age 38) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1985–present
Spouse(s)	Ian Alexander, Sr. (1997-2006) (divorced)

Regina King (born January 15, 1971) is an American film and television actress.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Personal life 1.2 Career 2 Campaigning for Barack Obama 3 Filmography 4 Awards/nominations 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Personal life

King was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Gloria, a special education teacher, and Thomas King, an electrician.^[1] The two divorced in 1979.^[2] She is also the older sister of actress Reina King. Regina and her sister's names have essentially the same meaning: Reina and Regina both mean "Queen", in Spanish and Latin, respectively.

She attended Westchester High School (Los Angeles) and the University of Southern California.

King married Ian Alexander, Sr. on April 23, 1997. Their son, Ian Alexander Jr., was born on January 19, 1996. King filed for divorce from Alexander on November 8, 2006, citing "physical abuse, drug use, and extramarital affairs".^[3] She is currently linked to Brian White.

[edit] Career

King began her acting career in 1985 in the role of Marla Gibbs' daughter Brenda on the television series 227, a role she played until 1990. She went on to appear in the John Singleton films Boyz N the Hood, Poetic Justice and Higher Learning. In 1995, she was featured in the hit comedy Friday. In 1996, she played the love interest of Martin Lawrence in A Thin Line Between Love and Hate. Also in 1996, she gained fame starring in the blockbuster romantic comedy Jerry Maguire, with Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr. This film brought King mainstream recognition in her role as Marcee Tidwell, the wife of Cuba Gooding Jr.’s character.

Soon thereafter she played Will Smith's wife in the spy thriller Enemy of the State, and was also featured in How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Disney's remake Mighty Joe Young. She continued playing feature roles in a variety of films, including Down to Earth, with Chris Rock, Daddy Day Care with Golden Globe winner Eddie Murphy, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde with Reese Witherspoon and Sally Field, and A Cinderella Story, with Hilary Duff.

In 2004, King played Margie Hendricks, a singer in Ray Charles’ backup group The Raelettes and one of the musical legend’s mistresses, in Ray, and in 2005, she co-starred in Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous as Sandra Bullock's tough FBI agent partner. Additionally, she is the star of the Adult Swim show The Boondocks, providing the voices for the characters Huey and Riley Freeman, as well as the feature film The Ant Bully. Most recently, she appeared in season 6 of the hit show 24 and the film This Christmas with an all star cast, such as Loretta Devine, Idris Elba, Columbus Short, and Chris Brown. In 2008 she appears in the TV film Living Proof.

She currently stars in the police drama Southland, as Detective Lydia Adams. NBC aired the show's first season and renewed it for a second season to begin airing in the fall of 2009, but the show was cancelled two weeks before its premiere. The thirteen produced episodes will begin airing in January on TNT, who, depending on ratings, may decide to order more episodes.

[edit] Campaigning for Barack Obama

Regina King was a vocal and prominent supporter of Barack Obama in his campaign for election to the US Presidency.^[4] She traveled all across Ohio, prior to the Ohio Primary, stumping for Senator Obama. She has been quoted as saying "So it's just it's a very grass roots way to get the word out. And you know it's how Obama started his campaign and that's how he's been winning the last few primaries, by not forgetting about the so called little people."

[edit] Filmography

• Boyz n the Hood (1991) - Shalika
• Poetic Justice (1993) - Iesha
• Higher Learning (1995) - Monet
• Friday (1995) - Dana Jones
• A Thin Line Between Love and Hate (1996) - Mia Williams
• Jerry Maguire (1996) - Marcee Tidwell
• Enemy of the State (1998) - Carla Dean
• How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998) - Vanessa
• Mighty Joe Young (1998) - Cecily Banks
• Love and Action in Chicago (film) (1999) - Lois Newton
• If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000) - Allie
• Down to Earth (2001) - Sontee Jenkins
• Daddy Day Care (2003) - Kim Hinton
• Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2003) - Grace Rosstier
• A Cinderella Story (2004) - Rhonda
• Ray (2004) - Margie Hendricks
• Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005) - Sam Fuller
• The Ant Bully (2006) - Kreela (voice)
• This Christmas (2007) - Lisa Whitfield-Moore
• Year of the Dog (2007) - Layla
• Living Proof (2008) - Ellie
• Our Family Wedding (2010) - TBA

[edit] Awards/nominations

• BET Award
  • 2005, Best Actress: (Winner)
  • 2001, Best Actress: (Nominated)

• Black Reel Awards
  • 2005, Best Actress (Drama): Ray (Nominated)

• NAACP Image Awards
  • 2005, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Ray (Winner)
  • 2002, Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture: Down to Earth (Nominated)
  • 1999, Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture: Enemy of the State (Nominated)

• Screen Actors Guild
  • 2005, Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture: Ray (Nominated)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Regina King at the Internet Movie Database
• Regina King at MySpace

Awards and achievements
BET Award
Preceded by Halle Berry	Best Actress 2005 for Ray	Succeeded by Taraji P. Henson
NAACP Image Award
Preceded by Alfre Woodard for Radio	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture 2005 for Ray	Succeeded by Cicely Tyson for Diary of a Mad Black Woman
Satellite Award
Preceded by Patricia Clarkson for Pieces of April	Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Comedy or Musical 2005 for Ray	Succeeded by Meryl Streep for The Devil Wears Prada