Alfre Ette Woodard (born November 8, 1952) is an American film, stage, television actress and producer. She has been nominated once for an Academy Award and Grammy Awards, 12 times for Emmy Awards (winning four), and has also won a Golden Globe and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.
She is known for her role in films such as Cross Creek, Miss Firecracker, Grand Canyon, Passion Fish, Primal Fear, Star Trek: First Contact, Miss Evers' Boys, K-PAX, Radio, Take the Lead and The Family That Preys.

Alfre Woodard was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma to African American parents: Constance, a homemaker, and Marion H. Woodard, an entrepreneur and interior designer. Woodard attended Bishop Kelley High School, a private Catholic school in Tulsa. She studied drama at Boston University, from where she later graduated. Woodard lives in Santa Monica, California, with her husband, writer Roderick Spencer, and their two adopted children, Mavis and Duncan. Woodard follows Christian Science. She is a founder and board member of Artists for a New South Africa and is also active in the Democratic Party.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfre_Woodard