On the star track

EVERY NOW AND THEN SPECIAL PERSONALITIES HIT HOLLYWOOD AND THE STAGE--hard--and quickly become the talk of the town by displaying qualities that have brought them to the forefront. They are talented. They are beautiful. They are versatile, and they are climbing the ladder that could take them to superstardom.

The performers featured on these pages are making their mark in the spotlight, exhibiting the kind of talent that could make them "the next big thing."

Kerry Washington

WHEN do you know you've made it? Is it when the paparazzi start calling your last name and you tell your mother, "Morn, they're talking about m."

For 28-year-old Kerry Washington, a featured star in the movie Ray, it has been one defining moment after another in a career that's about to take her to another level. "I don't know if I'll ever feel that I've arrived:' Washington says during a taxicab phone interview from the streets of New York.

Washington, who grew up in the Bronx, N.Y., and went to the exclusive Spence School on a scholar ship (she graduated from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in 1998), has been lauded for her versatility in films. She starred in The Human Stain with Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman, had the lead role in the Spike Lee movie She Hate Me, and was universally praised for her performance as Ray Charles' wife opposite Jamie Foxx in Ray. This summer she'll gain even more fame as the blind love interest of the famed Marvel superhero "Thing" in the movie Fantastic Four. She and her fiance, David Morrow. have homes in Harlem and Los Angeles.

"I hope that--as much as I plan and envision for myself--I have the courage to allow for there to be even more [fame]" says Washington, who enjoys yoga and meditation. "I always hope that [my life] goes beyond my imagination."

Sophie Okonedo

HER name may not be common to most, but her roles, whether on screen or on stage, are unforgettable. Sophie Okonedo, born to an English mother and Nigerian father, has been praised for her in-depth characterizations and thought-provoking portrayals.

Most recently, the London-based actor co-starred in Hotel Rwanda as Tatiana, the wife of hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), who risks his life and the lives of his family to save more than 1,200 refugees during the 100-day massacre in Rwanda that left more than 1 million dead. In a role that has garnered the praise of critics and audiences alike, Okonedo gives a heart-wrenching performance that illustrates the tests and triumphs of motherhood and the perilous bounds of loyalty in a dived country. "After you watch this film, when you hear the word genocide, I fell that one would have a much stronger reaction to that word," says Okonedo. "It puts a human face on what went on."

While talks of an Oscar-worthy performance swirl throughout the entertainment world, Okonedo, professionaly trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, is already back in front of the camera, preparing for her role in the action-thriller movie Aeon Flux, co-starring Charlize Theron.

Of the many roles she has played, including those in 13 television productions, 13 movies and 11 theatrical performances, Okonedo finds depth and realism in her role in Hotel Rwanda. "I'm a mother [7-year-old daughter], so I know all of those feelings of protection that you have for your child," she says. "And the story of Rwanda is such that you can't help but feel it to the core."

Sharon Warren

SHARON Warren, a 24-year-old little-known actress from Tuskegee, Ala., has been the talk of Hollywood since her incredible performance in the movie Ray as Aretha Robinson, the strong-willed laundrywoman who reared the musical genius. She was chosen by the movie's director, Taylor Hackford, who had seen the actress in a local performance in Atlanta. After that, he didn't consider anyone else following her audition for the role, according to Warren, who drew on family input in order to prepare for the role. "It was my grandmother who allowed the [Aretha] role to come to life," says Warren. "She knew what it was like to be a Black woman struggling in the South with two children and the danger that women faced."

Warren's parents, who had introduced her to culture and art at an early age, sent their daughter to Auburn University in Alabama to study accounting and business. However, she had other plans. While at college she was bitten hard by the acting bug after playing Benetha in the play A Raisin in the Sun. "I left school. It was not the thing for me," she recalls. "I really needed to pursue my dream."

Warren packed her bags and headed to Atlanta, where she immersed herself in the local theater circuit. She got a role in the play Flying Over Purgatory, in which she appeared with veteran actress Ruby Dee. "When I stepped out on stage the first time, I was home," says Warren, who will be seen in Glory Road, scheduled for release in March 2005. "I was a little bit apprehensive at first, but it came very natural to me."

The actress, who maintains her petite 5-foot-5 1/2-inch frame, is single and now lives in Los Angeles. Most of Warren's scenes in the movie Ray are with child actor C.J. Sanders, who plays a young Ray Charles. Although Warren had only one scene in the movie with Jamie Foxx, some critics have said she deserves an Oscar for her first movie role. "Jamie is such a talented actor," says Warren, who admits to being somewhat star struck by the film's leading man. "It was an honor to work with him."

Angela M. Brown

THE buzz about Angela M. Brown, who awed audiences at the Metropolitan Opera in Aida. is that she could be the next opera diva. "It was a dream come true," says Brown of her Met performance, which set the opera world on its fine-tuned ears and landed her on Page 1 of the New York Times.

After the lead singer playing "Aida" became ill, Brown, who was the show's cover, stepped into the role, which showcased her rich, powerful voice and caused music critics and audiences to compare her to Leontyne Price. "Price was definitely a role model," says Brown. "I'm not trying to fill her shoes in any kind of way."

Brown began singing gospel in her grandfather's Baptist church in Indianapolis at age 5.

She had set her sights on becoming a singing evangelist. That was until her music teacher at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Ala., recognized that she had the stuff that Verdi sopranos are made of. "I didn't know what I had," says Brown, now 40, who began studying classical music, French, German and Italian at the age of 21.

So far, she's performed most of the major roles of the opera repertoire, impressing critics with her voice, which she acknowledges is "a gift from God." She also has released her CD, Mosaic (Albany Records), a collection of African-American spirituals accompanied by piano and guitar. And she's to appear in Margaret Garner, an opera written by author Toni Morrison, with music by Richard Danielpour.

The singer uses her voice to bring awareness of opera to predominately African-American communities and young audiences with what she calls "Opera from a Sistah's Point of View," offering a hipper interpretation of the character "Aida," the smitten Ethiopian princess who decides to be buried alive along with her doomed lover in Giuseppe Verdi's opera. "She's a chick that fell in love with this Egyptian leader," says Brown. "She was enslaved and got caught up in this love triangle after this other girl tried to take her man. She was stupid for climbing into that tomb with him. Honey [as she tells audiences], you can find another man. It's not that good. Ladies, is it ever that good?"

The opera star is single, lives in the Bronx and spends time at her church in Harlem.

Zoe Saldana

YOU know she's beautiful and talented and has an acting range that all but guarantees an Oscar nomination at some point during her career. But what you may not know about Zoe Saldana is that becoming a famous actress was her back-up plan--her first dream was to be a ballerina.

Born in New York to Dominican parents, Zoe, at the age of 10, moved back to the Dominican Republic with her mother after her father died. There, on a full dance scholarship, she studied ballet, jazz, modern and Latin dance for seven years. After her sophomore year of high school, she returned to New York and embarked on her acting career, and a big-time talent manager "discovered" her.

The young star may have begun her career much like other young actresses, with appearances in teeny-bop films full of sugar and spice and very little substance--but her mesmerizing performance as the cute-yet-cutthroat swashbuckler in the Pirates of the Caribbean put an end to all of that.

Soon after that performance, director Steven Spielberg chose Zoe to appear as an INS agent opposite Hollywood icons Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the critically acclaimed movie The Terminal. Industry insiders say it's highly unusual for a young Black actress (she's only 26) to work with such Hollywood heavyweights so early in her career. Perhaps Zoe's formula for success is her refusal to be pigeonholed in an industry that's quick to label Black actors and cast them in minor films. "I don't need anyone to tell me that I'm Latina or Black," Zoe has said. "I just want to be given the same consideration as everyone else."

This month, Zoe stars opposite the hilarious Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher in Columbia Pictures' Guess Who?--a romantic spoof on the original Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. In the film, Zoe, who portrays the lovesick daughter of Bernie Mac, wants to marry her White boyfriend, portrayed by Kutcher.

Naomie Harris

NAOMIE Harris is one of those subtle scene-stealers well on her way to headline status. Not yet a household name, but she almost imperceptibly uses supporting roles to make powerful, profound acting statements.

Even in a film like last year's After the Sunset, in which she co-starred with Don Cheadle, Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayek, Harris received some of the best notices in that movie about a heist in a tropical setting.

That has happened frequently in the career of the actress who was raised by a single mother, and later studied political science at Cambridge University before enrolling at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School for stage training.

In the 1990s, she broke through and garnered coveted television roles in Great Britain. Her first big break came when she appeared in the miniseries White Teeth as the Jamaican daughter with a Jehovah's Witness mother. That miniseries was shown in the United States on PBS.

In another notable role, Harris was cast opposite Colin Firth in the psychological drama Trauma, about a man who wakes up from a coma to find that his wife (Harris) has been killed in a car crash. In the film, he is haunted by images of his late wife. Then came the 2002 science fiction thriller film 28 Days Later, a film about animal rights activists who free infected chimpanzees from a lab and inadvertently unleash a deadly virus.

So impressive have her acting skills been that some roles specifically written for White actresses were rewritten to accommodate her skills after producers and directors were blown away by her talents.

The 28-year-old rising star loves the diverse and numerous roles coming her way along with the rave notices. And she accepts her rapidly vanishing anonymity.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group