Octavia Spencer facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Octavia Spencer
Spencer at the White House in 2016
Born	Octavia Lenora Spencer (1970-05-25) May 25, 1970 (age 55) Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
Education	Auburn University at Montgomery Auburn University (BA)
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1996–present
Awards	Full list

Octavia Lenora Spencer (born May 25, 1970) is an American actress. She has won many important awards, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award. She has also been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards.

Octavia Spencer started her acting career in 1996 with the movie A Time to Kill. After many smaller roles, she became famous in 2011 for her part as a maid in the movie The Help. For this role, she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Later, she won another award for her role in Fruitvale Station (2013). She also had a regular role in the TV show Mom (2013–2015) and starred in the TV drama Red Band Society (2014–2015).

Spencer played important roles as black women in the 1960s. She was Dorothy Vaughan in Hidden Figures (2016) and a cleaning woman in The Shape of Water (2017). These roles earned her two more nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. This made her the first black actress to be nominated for an Oscar twice after winning one. Since then, she has appeared in many other movies like The Divergent Series (2015–16), The Shack (2017), Gifted (2017), Instant Family (2018), Luce (2019), Ma (2019), Onward (2020), and Spirited (2022).

She also starred in the Apple TV+ show Truth Be Told (2019–2023). She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for playing Madam C. J. Walker in the Netflix mini-series Self Made (2020).

Besides acting, Octavia Spencer is also an author. She created a children's book series called Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective. She has published two books in this series: The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit (2013) and The Sweetest Heist in History (2015).

Early Life and Education

Octavia Lenora Spencer was born on May 25, 1970, in Montgomery, Alabama. She has six brothers and sisters. Her mother, Dellsena Spencer, worked as a maid. Octavia's father passed away when she was thirteen years old.

She finished Jefferson Davis High School in 1988. She then went to Auburn University at Montgomery and later graduated from Auburn University. At Auburn, she studied English and also focused on journalism and theater. Octavia Spencer has dyslexia, which means she sometimes has difficulty with reading.

In December 2021, Octavia Spencer, who is an alumna of Auburn University, bought food for students during their final exams.

Acting Career Highlights

Starting Out (1996–2009)

Octavia Spencer began her career by working as an intern on the movie The Long Walk Home. In 1997, she moved to Los Angeles. Her friend Tate Taylor, who would later direct The Help, encouraged her to move there.

Spencer's first movie role was a nurse in A Time to Kill. She was first hired to help with casting, but she asked the director if she could try out for a part. She appeared in many other movies, including Miss Congeniality 2, Never Been Kissed, Big Momma's House, Bad Santa, and Spider-Man.

She also made guest appearances on many TV shows. Some of these include CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Big Bang Theory, Wizards of Waverly Place, and ER. She had a regular role on the sitcom Mom. She was also known for playing Serenity Johnson on Halfway Home and Constance Grady on Ugly Betty.

In 2003, Spencer performed in her first and only play in Los Angeles. She has said she experiences "intense stage fright" when performing live. Later that year, she starred in a short film called Chicken Party. In 2008, her small role in Seven Pounds as a home care nurse earned her a lot of praise. In 2009, Entertainment Weekly magazine named her one of the "25 Funniest Actresses in Hollywood."

Spencer (middle) and The Help cast at the 18th Screen Actors Guild Awards

Breakthrough and Awards (2010–2019)

In 2010, Octavia Spencer joined Viola Davis, Emma Stone, and Bryce Dallas Howard in the movie The Help. This movie was based on a popular book. Spencer played Minny Jackson, a strong and brave maid. The film was directed by her friend, Tate Taylor.

For her role in The Help, she won the 2012 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. On February 12, 2012, she also won a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress. Then, on February 26, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the same role. This was her first Oscar nomination and her first win! She received a standing ovation at the ceremony and was very emotional during her acceptance speech. In June 2012, she was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which is the group that gives out the Oscars.

In 2013, she appeared with Michael B. Jordan in Fruitvale Station. This movie told the story of Oscar Grant, who was killed in 2009. In 2014, she reunited with The Help director Tate Taylor for the movie Get On Up, about singer James Brown. From 2014 to 2015, she starred in Steven Spielberg's TV show Red Band Society.

Spencer also acted with Kevin Costner in Black or White (2014). She played Johanna Reyes in The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015) and The Divergent Series: Allegiant (2016). She also voiced Mrs. Otterton in Disney's animated movie Zootopia.

In 2016, she starred in Hidden Figures with Taraji P. Henson and Janelle Monáe. This movie was about African-American mathematicians at NASA who helped with the Space Race in the 1960s. Spencer played Dorothy Vaughan. This role earned her another Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award. She also received her second nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. This made her the first black actress to get another Oscar nomination after winning one. To celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Spencer bought out a movie theater in Los Angeles so that families who couldn't afford tickets could see Hidden Figures for free.

Spencer at the Hidden Figures premiere in 2016

In 2017, Spencer co-starred with Sally Hawkins in The Shape of Water, a fantasy movie directed by Guillermo del Toro. In this film, she played Zelda Fuller, a cleaning woman who befriends a strange creature. The movie won the top award, the Golden Lion, at the 74th Venice International Film Festival. Spencer earned Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations for her role. She also received her third Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. This made her the first black actress to receive two Oscar nominations in a row, and one of the most nominated black actresses ever.

In 2018, Spencer starred in A Kid Like Jake and Instant Family. She also helped produce the movie Green Book, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

In 2019, she played Harriet Wilson, a history teacher, in the movie Luce. She also received praise for her starring role as Sue Ann "Ma" Ellington in the horror movie Ma, which was directed by her friend Tate Taylor. For Ma, she was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actress. Also in 2019, Spencer returned to TV by starring in and helping to produce the Apple TV+ show Truth Be Told.

Recent Work (2020–Present)

In 2020, Octavia Spencer lent her voice to two animated movies. She was Dab-Dab, an enthusiastic duck, in Dolittle. She also voiced "Corey" The Manticore in the Pixar animated fantasy film Onward.

Spencer also produced and starred as Madam C. J. Walker in the Netflix mini-series Self Made, which came out in March 2020. For her performance in this series, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.

Spencer starred with Anne Hathaway in the horror-comedy The Witches (2020). She also co-stars with Melissa McCarthy in the superhero comedy Thunder Force (2021). She will also reunite with her The Help co-star Jessica Chastain for a holiday comedy movie.

Personal Life

In 2017, while on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Octavia Spencer shared that she is a Southern Baptist.

Filmography

Here are some of the movies and TV shows Octavia Spencer has been in:

Film

Television

Awards and Recognitions

Octavia Spencer has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress three times, winning once. She is the first African-American actress to receive Oscar nominations in two years in a row. She is also the first African-American actress to receive two Oscar nominations after already winning one. She is one of the most nominated African-American actresses to date.

She has also won many other awards, including:

• Three Screen Actors Guild Awards
• Three National Board of Review Awards
• Two Satellite Awards
• Two Critics' Choice Movie Awards
• A Golden Globe Award
• A BAFTA Award

Images for kids

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  Spencer at the White House in 2016

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  Spencer (middle) and The Help cast at the 18th Screen Actors Guild Awards

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  Spencer at the Hidden Figures premiere in 2016