Who is Kyra Minturn Sedgwick?

Who is Kyra Minturn Sedgwick?[1] [2]She is a Golden Globe Award-winning American actress. In 2007, Sedgwick won Best Actress for lead role in a dramatic TV series at the Golden Globes for her role in The Closer.

Sedgwick was born August 19, 1965 in New York City, the daughter of Patricia (née Rosenwald), a speech teacher and educational/family therapist, and Henry Dwight Sedgwick V, a venture capitalist.[1][3][4] On her father's side, she is a descendant of Judge Theodore Sedgwick; Endicott Peabody, the founder of the Groton School; William Ellery, signer of the Declaration of Independence; the Reverend John Lathrop; and Governor Thomas Dudley; as well as first cousin once removed of Edie Sedgwick, a star of Andy Warhol's early films, niece of the writer John Sedgwick, sister of actor Robert Sedgwick and half-sister of jazz guitarist Mike Stern.[5] Her parents separated when she was three and divorced when she was six; her mother subsequently re-married to Ben Heller, an art dealer.[6][1] Sedgwick's father was Episcopalian of English heritage, and her mother was Jewish. Sedgwick identifies her family and herself as Jewish;[7][8] A 1996 interview referred to her as "an all-American Jewish WASP actress", but Sedgwick said in the article that she and her family do not participate in any specific religious activities for any faith except for attending some Passover seders.[9] Sedgwick graduated from the Friends Seminary and attended Sarah Lawrence College.[1] She transferred from Sarah Lawrence to the University of Southern California, graduating with a theater degree.


Sedgwick made her debut on the television soap opera Another World at the age of sixteen. During the 1990s, she appeared in several Hollywood movies, such as Something to Talk About (1995) and Phenomenon, in which she played the love interest of John Travolta's character.[6] She starred in the Emmy Award-winning 1992 made-for-TV film Miss Rose White as a Jewish immigrant who comes to terms with her ethnicity.[10] She played the part of Stella Peck in the 2007 film, The Game Plan.
As of 2005[update], Sedgwick stars in the television series, The Closer, for which she receives roughly US $300,000 per episode.[11] On January 15, 2007, she received a Golden Globe award for her performance as lead actress in that series. She also has been nominated for several awards for that role.


Sedgwick married Kevin Bacon on September 4, 1988. They have two children, Travis Sedgwick Bacon (born June 23, 1989) and Sosie Ruth Bacon (born March 15, 1992).[12] She is also the aunt of R&B/pop singer, George Nozuka and his younger singer/songwriter brother, Justin Nozuka.

Kyra has received these Awards and nominations

Golden Globe Awards
2006 64th Golden Globe Awards Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama The Closer
Satellite Awards
2005 Best Actress - TV Series Drama The Closer
2006 Best Actress - TV Series Drama The Closer
Gracie Allen Awards
2006 Best Actress - TV Series Drama The Closer

Kyra has received these nominations
Screen Actors Guild Awards
2006 13th Screen Actors Guild Awards nomination for outstanding performance by a female actor in a drama series The Closer
2007 14th Screen Actors Guild Awards nomination for outstanding performance by a female actor in a drama series The Closer
Golden Globe Awards
2005 63rd Golden Globe Awards Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama The Closer
2007 65th Golden Globe Awards Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama The Closer
Primetime Emmy Awards
2006 nomination for outstanding lead actress in a drama series The Closer
2007 nomination for outstanding lead actress in a drama series The Closer
2008 nomination for outstanding lead actress in a drama series The Closer

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Who is Angela Evelyn Bassett

Who is Angela Evelyn Bassett? She is an Emmy- and Academy Award-nominated, and Golden Globe-winning American actress who is particularly known for biographical film roles portraying women in American culture.

Bassett was born August 16, 1958 in New York City and relocated to St. Petersburg, Florida as a child. She and her sister D'nette were raised by their social worker/civil servant mother, Betty.[1][2] As her interest in entertainment developed, she and her sister would often put on shows, reading poems or performing popular music for their family. At Boca Ciega High School, Bassett was a member of the debate team, student government, drama club, choir, and was a cheerleader.

Bassett attended Yale University and received her B.A. in African-American studies in 1980. In 1983, she earned a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the Yale School of Drama. At Yale, Bassett met her future husband Courtney B. Vance, a 1986 graduate of the drama school. After graduation, Bassett worked as a receptionist for a beauty salon and as a photo researcher.
She soon looked for acting work in the New York theater. One of her first New York performances came in 1985 when she appeared in J. E. Franklin's Black Girl at Second Stage Theatre. She appeared in two August Wilson plays at the Yale Repertory Theatre under the direction of her long-time instructor Lloyd Richards. The Wilson plays featuring Bassett were Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984) and Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1986). In 2006, she had the opportunity to work on the Wilson canon again, starring in Fences (play) alongside longtime collaborator Laurence Fishburne at the Pasadena Playhouse in California.


In 1985 she made her first television appearance as a prostitute in the TV movie Doubletake (1985). However, she made her official film debut as a news reporter in F/X (1986). Bassett moved to Los Angeles and gained recognition in the films Boyz n the Hood (1991) and Malcolm X (1992). For her portrayal of Betty Shabazz she earned an Image Award.
Later that year, she won the role of Tina Turner in the feature film What's Love Got to Do with It. The film was released in 1993. Bassett earned a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Turner. She was the first African-American to win the Best Actress Golden Globe for a musical or comedy.
Angela Bassett starred in three movies in 1995 that were released with varied reactions from critics; Vampire in Brooklyn, Strange Days, and Waiting to Exhale (where she worked with author Terry McMillan). In Strange Days, Bassett plays Lornette "Mace" Mason, a chauffeur and bodyguard. Bernadine, Bassett's character in Waiting to Exhale, was betrayed by her husband and in revenge she set fire to his entire wardrobe and vehicle, then sold what was left for one dollar.
In 1998, Bassett starred in the film How Stella Got Her Groove Back, once again collaborating with McMillan. She played Stella, a 40-year-old professional woman who falls in love with a 20-year-old Jamaican man.
On April 28, 2008 it was announced that Bassett would join the regular cast of the medical drama series ER for the show's final season. She now portrays Dr. Catherine Banfield who replaces Kari Matchett's outgoing character Dr. Skye Wexler as Chief of the ER. Husband Courtney Vance also plays her television husband on ER as Russell Banfield.

Bassett is a private person, often choosing not to discuss her personal life with the public. She is also a religious person who is of the Christian faith and attends LA's West Angeles Church of God in Christ along with fellow actor Denzel Washington. Bassett told the Los Angeles Times: "Loving God is like my being black. I just am. [No one says] 'You know what? I'm gonna be blacker today!' It's my culture. It's not something I put on or take off or show more. You just communicate that in the way you live your life."

She has been married to actor Courtney B. Vance since 1997. In the summer of 2005, they starred together in a production of the play His Girl Friday at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The couple's children, son Slater Josiah and daughter Bronwyn Golden, were born on January 27, 2006. During and interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show, the couple confirmed that the twins were born via a surrogate mother after several years of unsuccessful attempts at conceiving naturally.

Bassett is an avid supporter of programs for the Arts, especially for youth. She annually attends events for children with diabetes and in foster homes, and she is an active Ambassador of UNICEF. Bassett is a big supporter of the Royal Theater Boys & Girls Club in her hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida. The Club is one of the first all performing arts Boys & Girls Clubs in the country.

She is currently a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for the United States.
Angela is represented by the Executive Speakers Bureau of Memphis, Tennessee, and receives between $20,000-$30,000 per appearance. [3]
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Who is Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden?

Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden [1] is an American educator and the next Second Lady of the United States as the wife of Vice President-elect of the United States Joe Biden,

who served formerly as the United States Senator from Delaware.

Jill Tracy Jacobs was born June 5, 1951 in Hammonton, New Jersey.[2] After moving several times while very young, she grew up in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.[3] Her father, Donald C. Jacobs (c.1927–1999),[4] was a bank teller who became head of a savings and loan in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania.[5] His family name had originally been Giacoppa before being anglicized.[5] Her mother, Bonny Jean Jacobs (c.1930–2008),[6] was a homemaker.[7][4] She has four younger sisters.[6] Her family was not very religious, but in ninth grade, she took classes on her own so she could join the Presbyterian church.[5]

She began working at age 15, including as a waitress at the Jersey shore, and always intended to have her own career.[5][8] She attended Upper Moreland High School, where she was somewhat rebellious and enjoyed social life, but always liked English class.[9] She graduated from there in 1969.[10]

Jacobs enrolled in a junior college in Pennsylvania and began studying fashion merchandising, but did not like it.[5] She married someone she had been dating following high school.[5] She enrolled in the University of Delaware along with him, where she declared English as her major.[5] After two years, the couple grew apart and divorced, when she was a junior at Delaware.[5] She then took a year off from college.[5][8][11] She also did some modelling for a local agency in Wilmington around this time, but never made it a career.[5][12] Subsequently, she returned to college; she met Joe Biden when she was a senior at Delaware in March 1975.[2][8][13] They met on a blind date with Joe Biden's brother's help though it turned out that Biden had unknowingly fancied her, having seen her in a local advertisement.[8] She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Delaware.[14] She began her career teaching English in high school.[8]
Jill Jacobs and Joe Biden were married on June 17, 1977 at the Chapel at the United Nations in New York City, about five years after Joe Biden's first wife and infant daughter died in a car accident[15][7][5] and after several times where she hesitated before accepting the commitment of raising his two young sons who survived the accident.[5] The sons were present on the altar at the ceremony.[13] She continued to teach and then, while pregnant, she received a Master of Education with a specialty in Reading from West Chester University in 1981.[5][16][14] Their daughter Ashley Blazer was born on June 8, 1981.[15] Living in Wilmington, Delaware, Jill Biden stopped working for two years while raising their daughter and his sons.[17]
She then returned to work, teaching English, acting as a reading specialist, and teaching history to emotionally disturbed students.[8] She also worked as a teacher in the adolescent program at the Rockford Center psychiatric hospital for five years in the 1980s.[7][5] In 1987, Biden received a Master of Arts in English from Villanova University.[7][14] During her husband's 1988 bid for the Presidency, she said she would continue her job of teaching emotionally disturbed children even if she became First Lady.[18] In all, she spent 13 years teaching in public high school,[8] including 3 years at Claymont High School.[5]

Since 1993, Biden has been an instructor at the Stanton/Wilmington campus of Delaware Technical & Community College.[14][11][8][19] There she teaches English composition and remedial writing, with an emphasis on instilling confidence in students.[20][11] She has said of teaching at a community college, "I feel like I can make a greater difference in their lives. I just love that population. It just feels really comfortable to me. I love the women who are coming back to school and getting their degrees because they're so focused."[11]
Biden is the president of the Biden Breast Health Initiative, a non-profit organization begun in 1993 that provides educational breast health awareness programs free of charge to schools and other groups in the state of Delaware.[21][22] Biden is also involved with Book Buddies, which gives books to low-income children, and Delaware Boots on the Ground, which supports military families.[20] She runs five miles five days a week, and has run in the Marine Corps Marathon.[8]
She later returned to school for her doctorate, studying under her birth name, Jill Jacobs.[17] She received a Doctor of Education in educational leadership from the University of Delaware in 2007.[7][23] Her dissertation Student Retention at the Community College: Meeting Students' Needs was published under the name Jill Jacobs-Biden.[23]

Following her strong dismay at George W. Bush's reelection in 2004, she urged her husband to run again for President.[11][19] During Joe Biden's 2008 campaign to be the Democratic nominee, she continued to teach during the week and would join him for campaigning on weekends.[19] She said that she would have taken an activist role in addressing education as her chief focus of concern as First Lady.[24] She also said that she was basically apolitical and would not sit in Cabinet meetings.[19]

Once her husband was selected to be Barack Obama's running mate, she began campaigning again. She wore a Blue Star Mothers Club pin in recognition of Beau Biden's deployment to the Iraq war.[11] She was not a polished political speaker, but was able to establish connections with the audience.[11] She also made some joint appearances with Michelle Obama.[12] Throughout the time her husband was running for vice president, Jill Biden continued to teach four days a week at Delaware Technical & Community College during the Fall 2008 semester, and then campaigned over the long weekend, while grading class papers on the campaign bus.[6][11][25] While she will be moving to the vice presidential residence in Washington as Second Lady of the United States, she plans to continue teaching at a Washington-area community college.[12][26][13] She has been weighing offers from institutions such as Montgomery College, Northern Virginia Community College, and the University of the District of Columbia.[27] It has been rare for Second Ladies to work while their spouses were vice president.[12][26] Catherine Russell, a former adviser to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was named Biden's chief-of-staff for her Second Lady role,[28] while Courtney O’Donnell, a former spokesperson for Howard Dean and Elizabeth Edwards, was named her communications director.[29]
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