Akosua Busia facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Akosua Busia
Busia in 1986
Born	Akosua Gyamama Busia (1966-12-30) 30 December 1966 (age 58) Accra, Ghana
Education	Central School of Speech and Drama
Occupation	Actress, film director, songwriter, author
Years active	1979–present
Known for	Nettie Harris – The Color Purple
Spouse(s)	John Singleton ​ ​ (m. 1996; div. 1997)​
Children	1
Parent(s)	Kofi Abrefa Busia (father)
Relatives	Abena Busia (sister)

Akosua Gyamama Busia (born on December 30, 1966) is a talented actress, writer, and songwriter from Ghana. Many people know her for playing Nettie Harris in the 1985 movie The Color Purple. Her father, Kofi Abrefa Busia, was once the Prime Minister of Ghana.

Family and Early Life

Akosua Busia was born in Accra, Ghana, in 1966. Her father, Kofi Abrefa Busia, was the Prime Minister of Ghana from 1969 to 1972. He was also a prince from the royal family of Wenchi, which is part of the Ashanti group. This means Akosua is a princess too!

Her sister, Abena Busia, is a well-known poet and a professor. She taught English at Rutgers University and later became Ghana's ambassador to Brazil in 2017.

Akosua grew up in Ghana. She started acting when she was just 16 years old. She even earned a scholarship to study at London's Central School of Speech and Drama. Her very first acting role was playing Juliet in Shakespeare's famous play Romeo and Juliet. She performed this play at Oxford University, where her siblings were studying.

Career Highlights

Akosua Busia first appeared in a movie in 1979. It was an adventure film called Ashanti, where she acted alongside stars like Michael Caine. In the early 1980s, she moved to Los Angeles. There, she got a role in the movie The Final Terror.

She has been in many movies and TV shows. A very important role was playing Nettie in Steven Spielberg's 1985 film The Color Purple. In this movie, she played the younger sister of Celie Harris, a character played by Whoopi Goldberg. The film was based on a popular novel by Alice Walker.

Akosua also played Bessie in the 1986 movie Native Son. She starred with Denzel Washington in Hard Lessons in 1986. Later, she appeared as Jewel in John Singleton's Rosewood (1997) and as Patience in Tears of the Sun (2003). You might have also seen her on the TV series ER.

Besides acting, Akosua is also a writer. She wrote a novel called The Seasons of Beento Blackbird. She also helped write the movie script for Beloved (1998), which was based on a novel by Toni Morrison. In 2008, Akosua directed a film about her father, called The Prof. A Man Remembered.

She even co-wrote a song called "Moon Blue" with the famous musician Stevie Wonder. This song was on his album A Time 2 Love in 2005. Her poem "Mama" was included in a book called New Daughters of Africa in 2019.

After taking an 18-year break to raise her daughter, Akosua returned to acting in 2016. She performed in the play Eclipsed with Lupita Nyong'o. For her amazing performance, she won an Obie Award.

Personal Life and Philanthropy

On October 12, 1996, Akosua Busia married American film director John Singleton. They have a daughter named Hadar Busia-Singleton, who was born on April 3, 1997. The couple divorced in June 1997. Their daughter went to school in Ghana before coming back to the U.S..

Akosua and her sister, Abena Busia, started the Busia Foundation International together. This foundation works to help people who are in need.

Filmography

Film

See also

In Spanish: Akosua Busia para niños