Octavia Lenora Spencer, born May 25, 1970, is an acclaimed American actress known for her powerful performances across both film and television. After making her film debut in A Time to Kill (1996), Spencer spent over a decade in smaller roles before her breakout performance in The Help (2011), where her portrayal of a maid in 1960s America earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She continued to build on this momentum with standout roles in Fruitvale Station (2013), for which she won a National Board of Review Award, and television appearances in Mom (2013–2015) and Red Band Society (2014–2015).

Spencer further cemented her legacy with critically acclaimed performances as historical figures and underrepresented voices, including NASA mathematician Dorothy Vaughan in Hidden Figures (2016) and a mute cleaning woman’s friend in Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water (2017). These roles earned her back-to-back Academy Award nominations, making her the first Black actress to receive two Oscar nods after winning. Her recent work spans a variety of genres, from horror in Ma (2019) to animated films like Onward (2020), and dramatic TV, including the Apple TV+ series Truth Be Told and Netflix’s Self Made (2020), where she portrayed entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker. Spencer’s career is marked by both critical success and a commitment to roles that challenge stereotypes and tell essential stories.