Happy Birthday Taraji Penda Henson
Taraji Penda Henson or Henson was born on September 11, 1970 in southeast Washington, D.C., the daughter of Bernice Gordon, a corporate manager at Woodward & Lothrop, and Boris Lawrence Henson, a janitor and metal fabricator. Her first and middle names are of Swahili origin, Taraji meaning hope and Penda meaning love.
Henson graduated from Oxon Hill High School in Oxon Hill, Maryland, in 1988. She then attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and got transferred to Howard University. To pay for college, she started working as a secretary at The Pentagon in the morning and as a singing-dancing waitress on a dinner cruise ship in the evening hours, the Spirit of Washington. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1995.
Henson became pregnant during her junior year of college, and gave birth to her son Marcel in 1994. Her son’s father was her high-school sweetheart. Henson is a great-great-cousin of North Pole explorer Matthew Henson and is a Christian.
Henson guest-starred on several television shows like Smart Guy (1997–98), House in 2005, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in 2006. She also starred on an episode of Sister, Sister. Apart from all this she has also been a part of several television shows, including: The Division and Boston Legal. Her recurring appearances in television include Eli Stone in December 2008. Three years later in 2011, Henson was cast in the CBS crime-suspense series Person of Interest.
Henson’s breakthrough role was in the 2001 comedy drama film Baby Boy. In 2005, Henson came in Hustle & Flow. Three years later in 2008, she appeared opposite Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.Henson also became a part of Tyler Perry films titled The Family That Preys in 2008 and I Can Do Bad All By Myself in 2009.
Next year in 2010, she appeared in the remake of 1984 film of the same name The Karate Kid alongside Jaden Smith and, in 2011, she was seen in the film Taken from Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story.In 2012, Henson was cast in the film Think Like A Man based on Steve Harvey’s 2009 book. She won the Best Actress awards for Baby Boy (2001), Hustle and Flow (2005), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and, also for Taken from Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story. This year in 2015, she won the Entertainment of the Year award and, Best Actress award for the movie No Good Deed.
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