Sanaa Lathan Biography

Sanaa McCoy Lathan (born September 19, 1971) is an American actress and voice actress. She has starred in many films, including the box-office hit The Best Man, its 2013 sequel, The Best Man Holiday, Love & Basketball, Brown Sugar, Alien vs. Predator and The Family That Preys. Lathan was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance on Broadway in A Raisin in the Sun. From 2009 to 2013, she voiced Donna Tubbs in The Cleveland Show. In 2010, she starred in the all-black performance of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Novello Theatre in London.

Early life

Lathan was born in New York City. Her first name means "artistry" in Swahili and "shining light" in Arabic. Her mother, Eleanor McCoy, was an actress and dancer who performed on Broadway with Eartha Kitt. Her father, Stan Lathan, worked behind the scenes in television for PBS, as well as a producer on shows such as Sanford & Son and Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam. Her brother is Tendaji Lathan, a well known DJ. She attended Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics.

She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in English. Lathan then attended Yale University and earned a master's degree in drama.

Career

Following her training at Yale, where she studied with Earle R. Gister and performed in a number of Shakespeare's plays, Lathan earned acclaim both off-Broadway and on the Los Angeles stage. Encouraged by her father to make Los Angeles her professional base, Lathan found early television roles on episodes of such shows as In the House, Family Matters, NYPD Blue, and Moesha. During that same period, she won raves and a Best Actress nod from the Los Angeles NAACP Theatrical Award Committee for her performance in To Take Arms.

In 1998, Lathan earned a degree of recognition with her role as the mother of Wesley Snipes' title character in Blade. She followed this the subsequent year with a role in Life with Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy and back-to-back turns in The Best Man and The Wood. The Best Man was a comedic ensemble film, starring Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Harold Perrineau Jr., and Morris Chestnut. The Best Man went on to become one of the top ten highest grossing African American films in history and Lathan received a NAACP Image Award nomination for her performance. The Wood, another ensemble film starring Diggs and Omar Epps, cast her as the love interest of Epps. Lathan and Epps were reunited onscreen in Gina Prince-Bythewood's Love & Basketball, this time playing a couple as passionate about basketball as they are about each other. Her performance in Love & Basketball earned her the 2001 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, as well as an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actress and a BET Award. In 2000, Lathan appeared in the Off-Broadway production of The Vagina Monologues along with Teri Garr and Julianna Margulies.

In 2001, Lathan earned additional acclaim for her work in the multicultural comedy film Catfish in Black Bean Sauce. Next was her second collaboration with Prince-Bythewood: Disappearing Acts; it is based on a novel by Terry McMillan. In the HBO film, Lathan is cast as an aspiring singer/songwriter in love with a carpenter, played by her Blade co-star Wesley Snipes. For her work in the film, Lathan earned an Essence Award for Best Actress. That year, she was named by Ebony magazine as one of its 55 Most Beautiful People and was honoured by Essence magazine and Black Entertainment Television. In 2002, Lathan starred in the romantic comedy film, Brown Sugar, alongside Diggs, Queen Latifah, and Mos Def. Lathan's performance earned an NAACP Image Award Nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture. The film also received an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Motion Picture. In 2004, Lathan starred on Broadway in A Raisin in the Sun with Sean Combs, Audra McDonald, and Phylicia Rashad. Lathan received a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actress for her portrayal of Beneatha Younger. Several years later, Lathan reprised the role in a critically acclaimed ABC Network production of A Raisin in the Sun.

In 2003, she co-starred with Denzel Washington in Out of Time. The following year, she was cast in the lead role in Alien vs. Predator. The film was a major success grossing over $171 million worldwide.

Lathan has acted in several roles in which her characters are involved in interracial relationships. In 2006, she co-starred with Simon Baker in Something New, a romantic comedy; as Michelle Landau, the much younger wife of a Texas businessman (Larry Hagman) during the fourth season of the television series, Nip/Tuck; and in 2008 as Andrea in Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys. The film also features Alfre Woodard and Kathy Bates; it was released in the U.S. on September 12, 2008. In an interview with NPR, Lathan said the script took a fresh approach to telling an interracial love story, by describing the internal conflict some African-American women confront when it comes to dating interracially. "I feel like with black women, in a way, I feel like it has been harder for us to go there just in terms of culturally. I know that there's this statistic that says that like 13 percent of black men are in interracial relationships. And don't quote me on this, but it's like four percent or three percent of black women are in interracial relationships; and I think that says a lot about, you know, either black women's loyalty her black man or her either guilt about stepping outside of the race."

In 2009, Lathan co-starred with Matthew Broderick in the drama Wonderful World. From 2009 to 2013, she voiced the character Donna Tubbs on The Cleveland Show.

In 2011, Lathan co-starred in the Steven Soderbergh thriller Contagion alongside Matt Damon, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishburne. In 2011, Lathan starred alongside Anthony Mackie and Forest Whitaker in Repentance, a psychological thriller directed by Phillipe Caland. Lathan played series regular Mona Fredricks in the second season of Starz' original series Boss, starring Kelsey Grammer.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Miracle in the Woods	Young Lilly
	Drive	Carolyn Brody
1998	Blade	Vanessa Brooks
1999	The Wood	Alicia
	The Best Man	Robyn
	Catfish in Black Bean Sauce	Nina
	Life	Daisy
2000	Love & Basketball	Monica Wright
2002	Brown Sugar	Sidney "Sid" Shaw
2003	Out of Time	Ann Merai Harrison
2004	Alien vs. Predator	Alexa Woods
2005	The Golden Blaze	Monica (voice)	Direct-to-video film
2006	Something New	Kenya McQueen
2008	The Family That Preys	Andrea Pratt-Bennett
2009	Wonderful World	Khadi
	Powder Blue	Diana
2011	Contagion	Aubrey Cheever
2013	The Best Man Holiday	Robyn Stewart
2014	Repentance	Maggie Carter
2015	The Perfect Guy	Leah Vaughn
2016	Approaching the Unknown	Captain Emily Maddox
	Now You See Me 2	Natalie Austin
2017	American Assassin	Deputy Director Irene Kennedy	Complete

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	In the House	Charese	Episode: "The Curse of Hill House"
1996	Moesha	Ebony	Episodes: "A Concerted Effort" (Parts 1 & 2)
1997	Family Matters	Allison	Episode: "Revenge of the Nerd"
1998	NYPD Blue	Shirley Barish	Episode: "You're Under a Rasta"
1998-1999	LateLine	Briana Gilliam	Regular role
2000	Disappearing Acts	Zora Banks	Television film
2006	Nip/Tuck	Michelle Landau	Recurring role
2008	A Raisin in the Sun	Beneatha Younger	Television film
2009-2013	The Cleveland Show	Donna Tubbs (voice)	Regular role
2010-present	Family Guy	Donna Tubbs (voice)	Recurring role (season 8-13) Regular role (season 14-)
2011	Tilda	Sasha Litt	Unsold HBO pilot
2012	Boss	Mona Fredricks	Regular role
2014	Real Husbands of Hollywood	Herself	Episode: Rolling with my Roomie
2017	Shots Fired	Ashe Akino	Lead role; 10 episodes

Awards and nominations

Year	Nominated work	Award	Category	Result
2001	Love & Basketball	BET Award	Best Actress
2001	Love & Basketball	Independent Spirit Awards	Best Female Lead
2001	Love & Basketball	Black Reel Award	Best Actress
2001	Disappearing Acts	Black Reel Award	Best Actress
2001	Love & Basketball	NAACP Image Award	Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
2003	Brown Sugar	NAACP Image Award	Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
2003	Brown Sugar	Black Reel Award	Best Actress
2003	A Raisin in the Sun	Tony Award	Best Featured Actress in a Play
2004	Out of Time	Black Reel Award	Best Actress
2004	Out of Time	NAACP Image Award	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
2004	A Raisin in the Sun	Theatre World Award	Best Female Lead
2006	Something New	Black Movie Awards	Best Actress
2006	Something New	Black Reel Award	Best Actress
2007	Something New	NAACP Image Award	Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
2007	Nip/Tuck	NAACP Image Award	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
2008	The Family That Preys	Black Reel Award	Best Actress
2009	A Raisin in the Sun	NAACP Image Award	Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie/Mini-Series
2012	By The Way, Meet Vera Stark	Lucille Lortel Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress
2012	By The Way, Meet Vera Stark	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Actress in a Play
2016	The Perfect Guy	NAACP Image Award	Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture