Pardon my “fan girl” moment here!
One of my fave all-time actresses, Regina King, is sporting box braids this season on her hit HBO show The Leftovers, which is arguably the most mysterious, dark and thought-provoking and often times disturbing shows on television right now.
Before King was making history winning the 2015 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Short Run Series for her phenomenal work on American Crime, she was Brenda, Marla Gibbs‘ character (“Mary Jenkins“) daughter on The Jeffersons spin-off 227.
I was living in Washington, DC when that show first came on and because it was based on a black family living in DC, I could certainly relate to Brenda and her friends Calvin and Tiffany.
Later, she played the heck out of Shalika in Boyz in the Hood and showed the world she had great acting chops.
It was solidified for me when I saw her outshine Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice, though another recording artist Tupac Shakur also did an upstanding job in that movie as well.
King stays working and slays each role. She has even directed a few episodes of Scandal, Being Mary Jane, Southland and a made for TV movie called Let the Church Say, Amen on BET. 🙂
She was cute as Marcee Tidwell in Jerry McGuire but should’ve been nominated for and won an Oscar for her role as back up singer and Ray Charles‘ lover Margie Hendricks in Ray, though she did take home an NAACP Image Award and a BET Award for that amazing depiction. Regina King has impeccable Style as well – Instagram
The next time I was entranced was watching King on Southland give a very convincing performance and truly humanize her character, a “lady cop” , and do it in a very powerful way. That drama had good writers on staff but still King breathed role in a part that was NOT written specifically for a black woman, giving her free rein to be herself and not have to adopt to fit any stereotypes, she said in an interview with The Daily Beast once.
Finally, following the American Crime success, I was very happy to learn that she landed a permanent role on The Leftovers with hunky Justin Theroux, also known as Mr. Jennifer Aniston.
The first season depressed the heck out of me and I struggled to not watch and lapse into a funk because it was that soul-draining. A show about the departure would do that to a person.
However with the addition of King as Erika Murphy, a wife and town doctor in the “non-miraculous” town of Miracle, Texas, and her co-star Kevin T. Carroll, who plays her hubby John Murphy, I’m hooked and reeled in. I want to learn more and figure out all the wacky stuff that’s going on in the show.
I am two episodes behind but so far have managed to stay away from spoilers other than people saying King slaughtered the last couple of episodes. My girl!
Anyway, I scraped these pics off of her social media because I love braids! lol
I am a content creator, social media agency owner, former attorney and publicist, wife and mom. I love working in cafes, wine, food and music festivals, Sunday brunch, home decorating, travel and life.