Octavia Lenora Spencer (born May 25, 1972) is an American actress and author. She has received several awards, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award. She is one of two Black actresses with three Academy Award nominations and the only Black actress with two consecutive nominations.
Spencer debuted in the 1996 drama A Time to Kill. Her breakthrough came in 2011 with The Help, winning the Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress. She received the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress for Fruitvale Station (2013). Her other films include Smashed (2012), Snowpiercer (2013), Get on Up (2014), The Divergent Series (2015–2016), and Gifted (2017). She earned Academy Award nominations for Hidden Figures (2016) and The Shape of Water (2017). As an author, she has published two children's books in the Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective series: The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit (2013) and The Sweetest Heist in History (2015).
United States
