Regina King

227 was one of those shows I never did get around to. My TV time in the ‘80s was limited by a combination of an early bedtime and my mom just limiting my TV time. In its debut season, it aired at 9:30 on Saturdays, and that was after my bedtime. I was eight that year. By the time it was in syndication, we had cable and I had an insane amount of options. That list that never gets shorter started never getting any shorter back in those days. But Regina King was on all but three episodes of the show. It started a career that has been running on all cylinders ever since.

There are some people who are just born to act in everything presented to them. Those terrible Disney Planes movies? Check. The Boondocks? Check. Playing Mother Nature on Northern Exposure? Check. Shirley Chisholm in a biopic about the first black woman to run for President in a major political party? Check. All this and directing too. And producing. She’s one of the big movers in TV these days, and also she’s got an Oscar, so she’s not exactly forgotten in the world of film, either.

Now, I’ve never believed you need to step outside your lane to be great. That said, some people just don’t have a lane. They are exceptional. King is one of those people. Even her own Wikipedia page seems a little bewildered about her range while also not being one of those Wikipedia pages obviously written by the person or their publicist. It points out, for example, that in one year, she was in Enemy of the State, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and Mighty Joe Young. Love and Action in Chicago appears to have been filmed in 1998 and released in 1999. That is quite the collection of movies.

This talent also means she’s one of those people who has appeared with the most astounding array of people. You start, of course, with Marla Gibbs—and of course Jackée Harry—and continue through to her upcoming projects, one of which appears to have one of those casts that’s just names drawn out of a hat. (Austin Butler, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, and Bad Bunny?) She worked with John Singleton several times and Damon Lindelof more than once. She’s worked with Tony Scott and Cameron Crowe. She won an Oscar for If Beale Street Could Talk and has guest-judged on RuPaul’s Drag Race.

And she keeps working. That’s worth noting, given she’s a woman in her fifties. She’s not just relegated to playing mothers and housekeepers, either. She’s still playing interesting, dynamic roles—and speaking as a mother, it can be a challenge in and of itself, but I’m no Shirley Chisholm. She’s still out there, and she seems unlikely to stop any time soon.