Black Reel Award for Outstanding Actress

Black Reel Award for Outstanding Actress
Black Reel Award for Outstanding Actress
Awarded for	Outstanding Actress
Country	United States
Presented by	Black Reel Awards (BRAs)
First award	2000
Final award	2023
Final winner	Danielle Deadwyler ; Till
Most awards	Viola Davis & Sanaa Lathan (2)
Most nominations	Viola Davis (6)
Website	blackreelawards.com

This article lists the winners and nominees for the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture. The award recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role within the given eligible period.

Awarded forOutstanding Actress

CountryUnited States

Presented byBlack Reel Awards (BRAs)

First award2000

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Nia Long received the first award for The Best Man at the 1st Annual Black Reel Awards in 2000. Since its inception, the award has been given out to 21 actresses. With 6 nominations, Viola Davis hold the record for most nominations and tied with Sanaa Lathan for most wins with 2. Rosario Dawson is the most nominated actress in this category without a win. Gugu Mbatha-Raw is the only actress to earn multiple nominations in the same year for Belle & Beyond the Lights at the 14th Annual Black Reel Awards.

At age 9, Quvenzhané Wallis became the youngest actress to win this award for Beasts of the Southern Wild and at age 69, Irma P. Hall became the oldest winner in this category for The Ladykillers.

The award was discontinued at the 24th Black Reel Awards and merged with Outstanding Actor in favor of a single gender-neutral award, Outstanding Lead Performance.^[1]

[1]

Year	Actress	Film	Ref
2000
	Nia Long	The Best Man	^[2]
	Rosario Dawson	Light It Up
	Thandiwe Newton	Besieged
	Rosie Perez	The 24 Hour Woman
	Malinda Williams	The Wood
2001
	Sanaa Lathan	Love & Basketball	^[3]
	Angela Bassett	Boesman and Lena
	Jada Pinkett Smith	Bamboozled
	Michelle Rodriguez	Girlfight
	Alfre Woodard	What's Cooking
2002
	Halle Berry	Monster's Ball	^[4]
	Vivica A. Fox	Two Can Play That Game
	Pam Grier	Bones
	Taraji P. Henson	Baby Boy
	Regina King	Down to Earth
2003
	Angela Bassett	Sunshine State	^[5]
	Kimberly Elise	John Q
	Aunjanue Ellis	Undercover Brother
	Sanaa Lathan	Brown Sugar
	Thandiwe Newton	The Truth About Charlie
2004
	Sanaa Lathan	Out of Time	^[6]
	Halle Berry	Gothika
	Beyoncé	The Fighting Temptations
	Queen Latifah	Bringing Down the House
	Gabrielle Union	Deliver Us from Eva
2005	Drama		^[7]
	Sophie Okonedo	Hotel Rwanda
	Regina King	Ray
	Kerry Washington	Ray
	Comedy / Musical
	Irma P. Hall	The Ladykillers
	Angela Bassett	Mr. 3000
	Gabrielle Union	Breakin' All the Rules
2006
	Kimberly Elise	Diary of a Mad Black Woman	^[8]
	Rosario Dawson	Rent
	Nona Gaye	The Gospel
	Queen Latifah	Last Holiday
	Zoe Saldaña	Guess Who
2007
	Keke Palmer	Akeelah and the Bee	^[9]
	Beyoncé	Dreamgirls
	Sanaa Lathan	Something New
2008
	Queen Latifah	The Secret Life of Bees	^[10]
	Jennifer Hudson	The Secret Life of Bees
	Sanaa Lathan	The Family That Preys
	Keke Palmer	The Longshots
	Alfre Woodard	The Family That Preys

Year	Actress	Film	Ref
2010
	Gabourey Sidibe	Precious	^[11]
	Nicole Beharie	American Violet
	Taraji P. Henson	I Can Do Bad All By Myself
	Sophie Okonedo	Skin
	Maya Rudolph	Away We Go
2011
	Kerry Washington	Night Catches Us	^[12]
	Kimberly Elise	For Colored Girls
	Queen Latifah	Just Wright
	Thandiwe Newton	For Colored Girls
	Anika Noni Rose	For Colored Girls
2012
	Viola Davis	The Help	^[13]
	Naomie Harris	The First Grader
	Nia Long	Mooz-lum
	Adepero Oduye	Pariah
	Zoe Saldaña	Colombiana
2013
	Quvenzhané Wallis	Beasts of the Southern Wild	^[14]
	Halle Berry	Cloud Atlas
	Emayatzy Corinealdi	Middle of Nowhere
	Viola Davis	Won't Back Down
	Rashida Jones	Celeste and Jesse Forever
2014
	Danai Gurira	Mother of George	^[15]
	Halle Berry	The Call
	Rosario Dawson	Trance
	Lisagay Hamilton	Go for Sisters
	Nia Long	The Best Man Holiday
2015
	Gugu Mbatha-Raw	Belle	^[16]
	Rosario Dawson	Top Five
	Gugu Mbatha-Raw	Beyond the Lights
	Tessa Thompson	Dear White People
	Quvenzhané Wallis	Annie
2016
	Teyonah Parris	Chi-Raq	^[17]
	Viola Davis	Lila & Eve
	Kitana Kiki Rodriguez	Tangerine
	Zoe Saldaña	Infinitely Polar Bear
	Karidja Touré	Girlhood
2017
	Ruth Negga	Loving	^[18]
	Taraji P. Henson	Hidden Figures
	Royalty Hightower	The Fits
	Sasha Lane	American Honey
	Madina Nwalanga	Queen of Katwe
2018
	Natalie Paul	Crown Heights	^[19]^[20]
	Amandla Stenberg	Everything, Everything
	Carmen Ejogo	It Comes at Night
	Jessica Williams	The Incredible Jessica James
	Simone Baker	Gook
2019
	KiKi Layne	If Beale Street Could Talk	^[21]^[22]
	Viola Davis	Widows
	Regina Hall	Support the Girls
	Amandla Stenberg	The Hate U Give
	Zoe Renee	Jinn

Year	Actress	Film	Ref
2020
	Lupita Nyong’o	Us	^[23]
	Cynthia Erivo	Harriet
	Jodie Turner-Smith	Queen & Slim
	Gugu Mbatha-Raw	Fast Color
	Alfre Woodard	Clemency
2021
	Viola Davis	Ma Rainey's Black Bottom	^[24]
	Nicole Beharie	Miss Juneteenth
	Andra Day	The United States vs. Billie Holiday
	Tessa Thompson	Sylvie's Love
	Zendaya	Malcolm & Marie
2022

	Tessa Thompson	Passing	^[25]
	Zazie Beetz	The Harder They Fall
	Halle Berry	Bruised
	Jennifer Hudson	Respect
Taylour Paige	Zola
2023
	Danielle Deadwyler	Till	^[26]
	Viola Davis	The Woman King
	Anna Diop	Nanny
	Regina Hall	Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.
	Letitia Wright	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Black Reel Award for Outstanding Actress

Winners and nominees

2000s

2010s

2020s

Multiple nominations and wins

Multiple wins

Multiple nominations

Multiple nominations from the same film

Age superlatives

References

Related Articles

Record	Actress	Film	Age (in years)
Oldest winner	Irma P. Hall	The Ladykillers	69
Oldest nominee	Irma P. Hall	The Ladykillers	69
Youngest winner	Quvenzhané Wallis	Beasts of the Southern Wild	9
Youngest nominee	Quvenzhané Wallis	Beasts of the Southern Wild	9