Octavia Spencer

American actress

Also known as: Octavia Lenora Spencer

Written by Patricia Bauer

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Oct 9, 2024 • Article History

Quick Facts

In full:: Octavia Lenora Spencer

Born:: May 25, 1970, Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.

Also Known As:: Octavia Lenora Spencer

Awards And Honors:: Golden Globe Award (2012); BAFTA (2012); Academy Award (2012); Academy Award (2012): Actress in a Supporting Role; Golden Globe Award (2012): Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

Movies/Tv Shows (Acted In):: "Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker" (2020); "Onward" (2020); "Truth Be Told" (2019–2020); "Dolittle" (2020); "Ma" (2019); "Black-ish" (2019); "Luce" (2019); "Instant Family" (2018); "A Kid Like Jake" (2018); "The Shape of Water" (2017); "Gifted" (2017); "Small Town Crime" (2017); "The Shack" (2017); "Hidden Figures" (2016); "Bad Santa 2" (2016); "Car Dogs" (2016); "Allegiant" (2016); "Zootopia" (2016); "The Free World" (2016); "Mom" (2013–2015); "The Great Gilly Hopkins" (2015); "Fathers & Daughters" (2015); "Drunk History" (2015); "Break a Hip" (2015); "Insurgent" (2015); "Red Band Society" (2014–2015); "Black or White" (2014); "Get on Up" (2014); "Paradise" (2013); "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" (2013); "Snowpiercer" (2013); "American Dad!" (2013); "Lost on Purpose" (2013); "Fruitvale Station" (2013); "30 Rock" (2013); "Blues for Willadean" (2012); "Smashed" (2012); "Girls! Girls! Girls!" (2011); "The Help" (2011); "Flypaper" (2011); "Peep World" (2010); "Dinner for Schmucks" (2010); "Hawthorne" (2010); "Small Town Saturday Night" (2010); "Raising the Bar" (2009); "Herpes Boy" (2009); "Love at First Hiccup" (2009); "Halloween II" (2009); "Just Peck" (2009); "Jesus People: The Movie" (2009); "The Soloist" (2009); "Dollhouse" (2009); "Drag Me to Hell" (2009); "Worst Week" (2009); "Next of Kin" (2008); "Seven Pounds" (2008); "Faux Baby" (2008); "The Big Bang Theory" (2008); "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (2008); "Pretty Ugly People" (2008); "Wizards of Waverly Place" (2008); "The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman" (2006–2007); "Halfway Home" (2007); "Ugly Betty" (2007); "The Nines" (2007); "Standoff" (2006); "Pulse" (2006); "Huff" (2006); "Medium" (2005); "Wannabe" (2005); "CSI: NY" (2005); "LAX" (2004–2005); "Beauty Shop" (2005); "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous" (2005); "NYPD Blue" (2002–2005); "Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School" (2005); "Pretty Persuasion" (2005); "Coach Carter" (2005); "Breakin' All the Rules" (2004); "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!" (2004); "Bad Santa" (2003); "S.W.A.T." (2003); "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde" (2003); "Sol Goode" (2003); "Presidio Med" (2002); "Titus" (2001–2002); "Spider-Man" (2002); "The Chronicle" (2001–2002); "Dharma & Greg" (2001); "Grounded for Life" (2001); "The Journeyman" (2001); "City of Angels" (2000); "Malcolm in the Middle" (2000); "Becker" (2000); "Four Dogs Playing Poker" (2000); "Big Momma's House" (2000); "Just Shoot Me!" (2000); "What Planet Are You From?" (2000); "Chicken Soup for the Soul" (2000); "Everything Put Together" (2000); "The Sky Is Falling" (1999); "The X Files" (1999); "Roswell" (1999); "Chicago Hope" (1999); "Blue Streak" (1999); "Being John Malkovich" (1999); "American Virgin" (1999); "L.A. Doctors" (1999); "Never Been Kissed" (1999); "Brimstone" (1999); "ER" (1998); "To Have & to Hold" (1998); "Moesha" (1998); "Sparkler" (1997); "413 Hope St." (1997); "The Sixth Man" (1997); "A Time to Kill" (1996)

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Octavia Spencer (born May 25, 1970, Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.) is an American actress who was known for her numerous small, generally comic roles before she shot to stardom as one of the lead characters in the film The Help (2011). Spencer won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award for her performance as an outspoken domestic servant in Mississippi during the early 1960s.

Spencer was one of seven children, and she grew up in Montgomery, Alabama. She had an interest in acting from childhood, but she considered it to be an impractical career choice. She earned (1994) a bachelor’s degree in English from Auburn University and then worked in local casting for films that were shot in Alabama. Spencer auditioned for one of those movies, the thriller A Time to Kill (1996), and she was given a small speaking role that launched her acting career. She was cast in the minor comedies The Sixth Man and Sparkler in 1997 and played guest roles on such television shows as Moesha and ER the following year. Spencer continued in that manner, often playing the part of a nurse, for the next several years, though she did gain some recognition for her appearances in the film comedies Being John Malkovich (1999), Big Momma’s House (2000), and Bad Santa (2003) and for a recurring part in 2007 on the TV show Ugly Betty.

By 2009 Spencer was known primarily as a talented comic actress with a reputation as a scene stealer. However, the director of The Help, Tate Taylor, was a close friend of both Spencer and Kathryn Stockett (who wrote the 2009 novel on which the movie was based), and both felt that Spencer was right for the part of the forthright housemaid Minny Jackson. Spencer shone in the role, and thenceforward her versatility as an actress was no longer in doubt. Her subsequent projects included a well-received performance in the controversial film Fruitvale Station (2013), leading parts in the James Brown biopic Get on Up (2014) and the family dramas Black or White (2014) and The Great Gilly Hopkins (2015), a recurring guest role (2013–15) on the TV sitcom Mom, and the voice of Mrs. Otterton in the popular animated feature Zootopia (2016).

Empty movie theater and blank screen (theatre, motion pictures, cinema).

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Oscar-Worthy Movie Trivia

Spencer was nominated for another Oscar for her portrayal of the no-nonsense computer programmer Dorothy Vaughan in the acclaimed 2016 film Hidden Figures, about three real-life African American women who worked at the U.S. space agency in the early years of the American space program. Her credits from 2017 included the family drama Gifted and the fairy tale The Shape of Water, in which she played a member of a night cleaning crew who discover an unusual creature in the government laboratory where they work. For the latter film, Spencer received her third Academy Award nomination. She then appeared in the domestic drama A Kid Like Jake and the comedy Instant Family (both 2018).

Spencer’s roles from 2019 included a menacing neighbour in the horror film Ma and an inscrutable high-school teacher in the drama Luce. That year the TV series Truth Be Told premiered, with Spencer cast as a journalist and host of a true-crime podcast. In 2020 she lent her voice to Dolittle, Onward, and Superintelligence and starred in Self Made, a Netflix miniseries that was inspired by the life of Madam C.J. Walker, one of the first African American female millionaires in the United States. Spencer then appeared in Thunder Force (2021), an action comedy about two friends who become superheroes and battle genetic mutants. In 2022 she costarred with Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell in Spirited, a musical comedy inspired by Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.

Patricia Bauer The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica