Octavia Spencer

A veteran character actress and one of Hollywood's most sought-after talents, Octavia Spencer has become a familiar fixture on both television and the silver screen. Spencer's critically acclaimed performance as Minny in DreamWorks Pictures' Academy Award®-winning The Help won her the 2012 Academy Award®, as well as BAFTA, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Critics' Choice Movie awards, among numerous other honors for Best Supporting Actress.

Spencer starred in Insurgent, the second installment of Lionsgate/ Summit Entertainment's highly successful Divergent franchise. Portraying Johanna, the leader of the Amity faction, she stars opposite Shailene Woodley, Theo James and Kate Winslet.

In 2014, Spencer was seen in the action-adventure Snowpiercer, opposite Tilda Swinton and Chris Evans. She starred in the drama Black and White, alongside Kevin Costner; Fathers and Daughters, with Quvenzhané Wallis, Diane Kruger, Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried and Aaron Paul; and The Great Gilly Hopkins, opposite Sophie Nelissé, Glenn Close, Kathy Bates and Danny Glover, which is the adaptation of Katherine Paterson's young adult Newbery Award-winning novel.

In addition to her busy slate on the silver screen, Spencer made her network television debut as a series regular this fall on FOX's highly anticipated drama Red Band Society. From writer Margaret Nagle (HBO's Boardwalk Empire), Amblin Television and ABC Studios' Red Band Society is the most unlikely of high school shows. Employing a generous dose of humor, the series follows a group of teenagers who meet as patients in the children's wing of a hospital and become unlikely allies and friends. Spencer plays Nurse Jackson, the head nurse in the pediatric ward.

Spencer was seen in the indie-drama Fruitvale Station, which follows the final hours of Oscar Grant's life, a young man whose death sparked national outrage after video footage of his shooting was released to the public on New Year's Eve 2009. Fruitvale Station won several prestigious awards, including both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and the Avenir Prize in the Un Certain Regard category at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. It was named one of AFI's Movies of the Year and received nominations for the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards and NAACP Image Awards. Spencer was awarded Best Supporting Actress from the National Board of Review for her performance in the film, and received an individual nomination from the NAACP Image Awards. She also served as a producer on the film.

Prior to that, Spencer was seen in Diablo Cody's directorial debut, Paradise, alongside Russell Brand and Julianne Hough; and Smashed, an independent film which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival that also starred Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Paul and Megan Mullally. She co-starred in the Bryce Dallas Howard-directed segment of Call Me Crazy: A Five Film, an anthology of five short TV movies focused on various stories of mental illness. Produced by Jennifer Aniston, the Lifetime Original Movie event also included segments directed by Laura Dern, Bonnie Hunt, Ashley Judd and Sharon Maguire.

Spencer's acting career began with her big-screen debut in Joel Schumacher's A Time to Kill, opposite Sandra Bullock, in 1996. Since then, she has built a diverse and impressive resume. In 2009, Spencer was lauded by ew.com (Entertainment Weekly's web site) for her comedic timing when she was named on its esteemed list of The 25 Funniest Actresses in Hollywood.
Spencer's extensive feature film credits include Blues for Willadean, Fly Paper, Peep World, Dinner for Schmucks, Small Town Saturday Night, Herpes Boy, Halloween II, The Soloist, Drag Me to Hell, Seven Pounds, Pretty Ugly People, Coach Carter, Charm School, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, Bad Santa, Spider-Man, Big Momma's House, Being John Malkovich and Never Been Kissed. In 2008, she directed and produced the short film The Captain, which was a finalist for the coveted Poetry Film Documentary Prize at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival.

For television, Spencer could have been seen guest-starring in CBS' Mom, a comedy that centers on a newly sober mom attempting to pull her life together. Additionally, she made a memorable guest appearance in the final season of 30 Rock; starred in Comedy Central's Halfway Home; and appeared in a five-episode arc as the character Constance Grady on ABC's hit series Ugly Betty. She has also been seen in guest-starred on shows including The Big Bang Theory, ER, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: NY, Raising the Bar, Medium and NYPD Blue.

Among her many other professional achievements, Spencer has co-authored an interactive mystery series for children called "Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective." The first title in the series, "Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective: The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit," was published by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing in fall 2013.

Spencer is a native of Montgomery, Alabama, and holds a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from Auburn University.

Universal Pictures