The best Angela Bassett movies and TV shows feature everything from socially conscious prestige pictures to acclaimed biopics to superhero movies, where she even broke the glass ceiling at the Oscars. Bassett studied acting at Yale University, and after she graduated, she began looking for work in New York theater. After picking up some recognition in Boyz n the Hood and Malcolm X, she was able to catch on and start her work as a lead actress.

Bassett has found success at every step of her career. She has appeared in critically acclaimed biopics, playing historical characters like Rosa Parks and Tina Turner. She has been a major television star, with key roles in everything from 9-1-1 and E.R. to that Marvel animated series What If...? Bassett has also been a regular in American Horror Story and became the first Marvel Cinematic Universe actor ever to get an Oscar nomination for her role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

10 ion Fish (1992)

Rhonda / Dawn

Early in Angela Bassett’s career, the actress took on a role in the drama movie, ion Fish. The film, directed by John Sayles, follows a former soap opera star who was involved in an accident, leaving her paraplegic. The nurse she hired to help is a woman who is also struggling with issues of her own. Mary McDonnell plays the actress, May-Alice Culhane, and Alfre Woodard plays the nurse, Chantelle Blades.

As for Bassett, she plays a smaller role in the film, but it showed a lot of promise and was a nice follow-up to earlier performances in movies like Boyz n the Hood and Malcolm X. Overall, the movie has a perfect 100% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes. It also received two Oscar nominations, one for McDonnell and one for John Sayles's screenplay. At the Golden Globes, both Woodard and McDonnell also receive nominations.

9 9-1-1 (2018- )

Athena Grant-Nash

Angela Bassett leads the all-star cast in the procedural drama series 9-1-1. This series, created by Ryan Murphy, focuses on Los Angeles's first responders, including 9-1-1 dispatchers, police officers, paramedics, and firefighters, and shows how they save lives on a daily basis. Bassett plays Athena Grant-Nash, an LAPD patrol sergeant and the wife of Bobby Nash, the LAFD Station 118 captain.

While an ensemble series, Bassett remains one of the main stars and carries the load when it comes to the storyline.

9-1-1 has lasted for eight seasons and counting and survived Fox eliminating most of its scripted shows by moving to ABC. While an ensemble series, Bassett remains one of the main stars and carries the load when it comes to the storyline. 9-1-1 continues to draw high ratings, and it has received several awards nominations. Bassett herself won NAA Image Awards in 2020, 2022, and 2023 for her performance.

8 Notorious (2009)

Voletta Wallace

In 2009, Angela Bassett ed The Notorious B.I.G. biopic, Notorious. The movie, directed by George Tillman Jr., tells the story of the life and death of The Notorious B.I.G., starting with his death in 1997 and flashing back to his childhood in Brooklyn, New York. Bassett stars in the film as Voletta Wallace, Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace’s mother, and a woman who would not put up with his truancy and drug dealing while in school.

Bassett s an impressive cast that also includes Derek Luke as Sean “Diddy” Combs and Anthony Mackie as Tupac Shakur. While the movie received mixed reviews, it was praised for focusing on Christopher Wallace as a person rather than flossing on his rap career. Voletta, who Bassett played in the movie, served as a producer for the film, giving the actress access to the person she was playing for questions and advice (via XXL).

7 The Rosa Parks Story (2002)

Rosa Parks

The Rosa Parks Story was a 2002 television movie in which Angela Bassett played Rosa Parks while Cicely Tyson played her mother. With these two women at the lead, it was no surprise that the film was so critically successful. The film was a biopic that focused on the life of Rosa Parks and how her actions influenced the civil rights movement when her arrest for sitting on a bus caused a boycott that lasted 381 days.

Bassett also won a Best Actress award at the Black Reel Awards.

The movie focuses both on the events that everyone knows about as well as Rosa Parks’ background and the horrific conditions in the racially segregated Alabama and the Deep South. The NAA Image Awards presented the movie with its award for Best Television Movie, while Bassett herself won the NAA Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special. Bassett also won a Best Actress award at the Black Reel Awards, with Cicely Tyson winning Best ing Actress.

6 How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998)

Stella Payne

One of the most popular Angela Bassett movie roles came with her romantic comedy turn in the 1998 film How Stella Got Her Groove Back. This film sees Bassett star as Stella Payne, a successful 40-year-old stockbroker who is a single parent raising her 11-year-old son. While she is financially successful, her family always looks down on her for not having a romantic relationship. This all changes when her son is at his dad's for two weeks and she takes a Jamaican vacation.

While there, she meets a sexy chef’s assistant on the island named Winston (Taye Diggs), and while he is 20 years younger than her, the two of them enjoy a ionate relationship while she is vacationing. The film follows the struggles of an older woman dating a younger man, but soon, she realizes that love trumps that stigma. Bassett won the NAA Image Award for her performance and the movie won for Outstanding Motion Picture.

5 Mission Impossible – Fallout (2018)

CIA Director Erika Sloane

Mission: Impossible is one of those franchises that has actually gotten better as the series rolls on. The best movie in the series was the 2018 release, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, which saw Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt come into conflict with a rogue CIA agent named August Walker (Henry Cavill) and a terrorist named Solomon Lane (Sean Harris).

This was the movie that saw Alec Baldwin’s Alan Hunley die, and it introduced Angela Bassett as Erika Sloane, Hunley’s former assistant who became the director of the CIA. While Walker was a traitor, Sloane was not one of the villains and she took on his role with the IMF after his death. Bassett returns in the Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, as the President of the United States.

4 Malcolm X (1992)

Betty Shabazz

In 1992, Spike Lee directed the biopic that followed the life, death, and legacy of Malcolm X. Denzel Washington plays Malcolm X while Angela Bassett plays his wife, Betty Shabazz in the film. This movie follows Malcolm Little’s full life, from his days as a young child whose father was murdered by a chapter of the Black Legion to his time as a petty criminal as a young man. It then shows how he became Malcolm X and eventually his assassination.

Unlike many actors in the film, Bassett has some first-hand help with her role, as the real Dr. Betty Shabazz served as a consultant on the film (via The New York Times). While widely praised, Malcolm X only received two Oscar nominations, one for Denzel Washington, but didn’t win any. Bassett and Washington both won the NAA Image Awards for their performances. The Library of Congress also added the film to the National Film Registry in 2010 for preservation.

3 What’s Love Got To Do With It (1993)

Tina Turner

Angela Bassett received her first ever Oscar nomination in 1993 for her portrayal of Tina Turner in the biopic What’s Love Got to Do With It? The movie was based on Tina Turner’s autobiography and followed the music sensation from her hard living conditions as a child to becoming one of the industry’s most beloved stars. It also doesn’t shy away from controversies, as Laurence Fishburne stars as her volatile husband, Ike Turner.

Bassett did take home the Golden Globes Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

Bassett received the Oscar nomination for Best Actress, while Fishburne was nominated for Best Actor, and while they both lost, this proved that both actors were ready to step into the big time. Bassett did take home the Golden Globes Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and the NAA Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture.

2 American Horror Story (2013-2018)

Various Roles

In 2013, Angela Bassett began her roles on the horror television series American Horror Story. The first appearance came in Coven, where he played Marie Laveau in a story about a coven of witches in New Orleans who are descendants from Salem and their fight for survival. Most of the cast received Primetime Emmy nominations, with Kathy Bates and Jessica Lange taking home the two awards. Bassett also reprised the role of Marie Laveau in the 2018 release, Apocalypse.

In between those two seasons, Bassett also appeared in Freak Show, where she played Desiree Dupree, Hotel, where she played Romona Royale, and Roanoke, where she played Lee Harris and Money Tumusiime. The only season that Bassett received a Primetime Emmy nomination other than Coven was for Freak Show, where Kathy Bates and Sarah Paulson also received nominations for the same series.

1 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Ramonda

Bassett also returned to the role in 2022 with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, where she played the Queen mourning the death of her son, while also backing her daughter as she took on the role as the new Black Panther. In this sequel, Bassett became the first actor ever to receive an Oscar nomination for a movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This nomination came 25 years after her first nomination for What’s Love Got to Do with It?

While she lost the competition, the movie still received five nominations at the Oscars. This was two less than the first movie, which was also nominated for Best Picture in a movie where Angela Bassett initially took on the role of Ramonda, T’Challa’s mother and the Queen of Wakanda. She also voiced the role again in the Disney+ series What If…? In all, the two Black Panther movies won four Oscars.