She witnessed her mother being booted out of the family as a youngster: she went on to win an Oscar

Following her performance in Monster’s Ball, actress Halle Berry earned an Oscar and became the first ever African American woman who has won this prestigious award.

Born on August 14, 1966, in Cleveland, Ohio, as the youngest daughter of Jerome and Judith Berry, an interracial couple, Berry’s childhood was filled with plenty of challenges. In the early 1970s, her father abandoned her mother who moved her family to the predominantly white Cleveland suburb of Bedford.

The only time she spoke of her father was in 1992 when she said “I haven’t heard from him since he left. Maybe he’s not alive.”

Studying at a school attended by nearly whites-only, she was a subject of discrimination and bullying. However, facing racism at an early age didn’t break her spirit, it only made her stronger and more determined to achieve greatness in life.

Throughout high-school, Berry was included in plenty of extracurricular activities and was a newspaper editor, class president and head cheerleader, among the rest.

Soon after, she pursued a modeling career ending being first runner-up in the Miss USA competition in 1985.

Berry moved on to attend Cleveland’s Cuyahoga Community College where she studies broadcast journalism, but just as she was about to earn her degree, she decided to drop put and focus solely on a career in the entertainment industry.

She moved to New York where she worked as a model before landing a role in Living Dolls, following a role in the CBS prime-time drama Knots Landing.

Berry had her big breakthrough playing late Dorothy Dandridge in an HBO movie about the singer. For it, she won an Emmy and Golden Globe.

“I remember winning the Golden Globe and thinking that this was the epitome of life. I had a marriage, I had a daughter I had these awards. I had paid homage to my hero (Dandridge). I was thinking that my life was too good to be true. I said that so many times, it turned out that it really was too good to be true.”

Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s her career only went upwards and she landed roles in a number of prominent movies, including the film adaptation of the X-men comic book series. She appeared as Storm in X-Men (2000), X2: X-Men United (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). She also starred in Swordfish, and Die Another Day, among the rest.

Besides being an actress, Berry is also an entrepreneur who has launched her fragrance line in 2009. She has been an ambassador for several brands, such as Revlon, Versace, and Michael Kors, and has supported charitable causes related to domestic violence, cancer research, and mental health awareness.

In 2020, Berry, who’s a mom of two, made her directorial debut with the Netflix movie Bruised which follows the story of a disgraced MMA fighter who looks for redemption and tries to regain custody of her son.

Please SHARE this article with your family and friends on Facebook.

Bored Daddy

Love and Peace

Monica Pop
Monica Pop
Monica Pop is a senior writer for Bored Daddy magazine covering the latest trending and popular articles across the United States and around the world.

More from author

Related posts

Latest posts

Over 60 killed after fire rips through newly opened mall in Iraq following AC explosion

A devastating fire tore through a newly opened mall, the Corniche Hypermarket Mall, in Kut, eastern Iraq, claiming the lives of at least 61...

Entitled passenger snatched my in-flight meal — but karma served the real dish

What started as a routine cross-country flight quickly turned frustrating for a woman who happened to be seated next to an entitled passenger. The man...

Kate Middleton makes rare comment about Prince Louis

Kate Middleton received a standing ovation when she appeared at the Wimbledon tennis finals last weekend. Her presence at this event has always been embraced...

Our gender reveal cake was gray — then our daughter shared a surprising truth

When my husband and I married, we knew we wanted children. We already had a girl, Maddison, from his first marriage that I got...

Truth behind viral statement after married CEO caught with employee on Coldplay kiss cam

During Coldplay's recent Boston concert, frontman Chris Martin sparkled a viral moment when the 'kiss cam' revealed what many believe is an ongoing affair....

The dog that woke his master

The prognosis for Officer Rami, who was severely injured during a mission, was bleak. After weeks in the hospital, doctors decided to take him...