Geena Davis, Actor

Geena Davis has made a career of supporting groundbreaking female characters. She made her Hollywood debut in Tootsie, starring opposite Dustin Hoffman. Davis won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress in The Accidental Tourist and was nominated for Best Actress for her role in Thelma & Louise. She also starred as baseball player Dottie Hinson in A League of Their Own. She also won a Golden Globe for her role as the first female President of the United States in ABC’s Commander in Chief.

While watching children’s entertainment with her young daughter, Davis was shocked at the lack of female characters. In 2007, she launched The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, a research-based organization focused on increasing the presence of female characters in media and reducing stereotyping. The institute has gathered the largest body of research on gender prevalence in entertainment. Davis is an official partner of UN Women and serves as special envoy for women and girls in ICT for the UN’s International Telecommunication Union.