The Movie & TV Roles You Know Actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor From

Over the years, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor has appeared in some of our favorite movies and TV series as the strong Black mother, cool auntie or even Black mo. Her Oscar nomination for “King Richard” and roles in critically acclaimed films “Origin” and “The Color Purple” makes it seem like she’s an overnight success, however, she’s anything but.

In Ava DuVernay’s “Origin”—releasing wide on Jan. 19—she plays Isabel Wilkerson in the film based on the author’s novel “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ellis-Taylor explains how returning to her life in Mississippi influenced her eventual success.

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She added, “And I started working on project after project where I felt that my purpose—which is honestly to use my work and then use the income to fight these folks in Mississippi—has really converged with the kind of work that I do offscreen, but do onscreen as well. So these ideas that were in ‘Caste’ and now in ‘Origin,’ they’re not abstract to me; they’re my life.”

As we lead up to another Aunjanue in another fantastic role in “Origin,” here are a few roles that made us fans.

Lovecraft Country

While “Lovecraft Country” was a truly groundbreaking combination of sci-fi, horror and history, it was also rough to get through. The Black characters suffer what sometimes feels like a never-ending list of traumas. However, as interdimensional traveler Hippolyta, Aunjanue offers a few hopeful moments in the midst of the dramatic storm.

NCIS: Los Angeles

Ellis-Taylor played Michelle, the wife of LL Cool J’s Sam Hanna. She’s a former CIA agent who gave up her career to become a mom. But when she gets back in the game, Aujanue gets a chance to showcase her action hero skills. Unfortunately, her story doesn’t have a happy ending, as she has one of the most devastating deaths in TV history.

King Richard

If you’re a fan of Venus and Serena Williams, you already know how influential their mother, Oracene Price, is to their success. While “King Richard” focused on their father’s fight to get his daughters to the top of the tennis world, Ellis-Taylor’s powerful, unapologetic performance made it clear that Oracene was the real heart and soul of their family.

Justified: City Primeval

What made Ellis-Taylor so fun to watch as Carolyn in “Justified: City Primeval” was that she was not afraid to call Raylan Givens out on his “old school cowboy with a badge” tactics. Obviously she was scared of the criminals who had invaded her life, but as a Black woman with big goals, she couldn’t let them know the chaos was getting to her. She was an amazing addition to the “Justified” universe, and I hope we get to see her character again at some point. Frankly, I think we need a spinoff following her as a judge.

Directed by Ava DuVernay, look for Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor for “Origin” in theaters on Jan. 19.

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