Aunjanue Ellis

To say that things got heated on set of Roland Martin‘s News One Now is a complete understatement. By no surprise, Birth Of A Nation has rattled many black women, some using feminism as the reason why they wouldn’t support the film. The Nat Turner story opened to a disappointing $7M, and many people celebrated […]

Rapper DMX has just signed on to star in “Pimp,” the indie film from writer-director Christine Crokos that looks at the hustles and dangers facing women working the illegal sex trade in New York City. ‘Pimp’ is built around a love story between a female pimp (Keke Palmer) and her girlfriend (Haley Ramm) who dream of […]

  Aunjanue Ellis is the star of the BET miniseries The Book of Negroes, which has garnered a positive social media response in its first airing during the week. She plays Aminata Diallo, a woman who is enslaved and freed, but then spends the rest of her life fighting for her dignity. The six-part series repeats […]

Some of these films were developed for television while others started out on the silver screen and eventually were aired on Lifetime or UP (Uplifting Television). Also, many of the actresses featured in this gallery were in more films than listed.   I took the liberty to list some of my favorites.

25 years ago, 19-day-old Nejdra Nance (born Carlina White) was abducted from Harlem Hospital in New York City. The kidnapper, Ann Pettway (played by Aunjanue Ellis), posed as a nurse and snuck the infant out of the hospital. Over two decades later, Nance solved her own kidnapping. The TJMS' Sybil Wilkes talked with Aunjanue Ellis […]