Halle Berry

Halle Berry (born Maria Halle Berry) is an Oscar-winning actress known for a career that has spanned film, television and producing. Berry was born and raised primarily by her mother after her parents separated. She began competing in beauty pageants as a teen, winning Miss Teen All American and later becoming first runner-up in Miss USA. She briefly attended Cuyahoga Community College, where she studied broadcast journalism before pivoting to modeling and acting.

Berry’s early roles included appearances on television shows including Living Dolls and A Different World before filmmaker Spike Lee cast her in Jungle Fever (1991), earning her critical attention. She gained further attention in Boomerang (1992) and earned critical acclaim playing the titular role in the HBO film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, which won her an Emmy and a Golden Globe.

In 2002, Berry made history as the first Black woman to win the Best Actress award at the Academy Awards for Monster’s Ball (2001). She also starred as Storm in the X-Men franchise and appeared as a Bond girl in Die Another Day (2002). Some of her later film work includes The Call (2013), Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), Never Let Go (2024) and Crime 101 (2026).

Berry was married to David Justice from 1993 to 1997 and to Eric Benét from 2001 to 2005. From 2013 to 2016, she was married to Olivier Martinez, with whom she shares a son, Maceo-Robert (born in 2013). She also welcomed daughter Nahla in 2008 with ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry. In 2020, she went public with Van Hunt, and the pair got engaged in February 2026.