Halle Berry

She was previously married to baseball player David Justice and musician Eric Benet. Both of these marriages ended in divorce.

She was once in a relationship with the model Gabriel Aubry with whom she had a daughter.

Currently, she is married to actor Olivier Martinez and is expecting a child with him.

Halle Berry was born to Judith Ann, a psychiatric nurse and Jerome Jesse Berry, a hospital attendant. She is of mixed ancestry—her mother was of English and German origins while her father was an African American. She has an elder sister

Her father abandoned the family when Halle was very young and she was raised by her single mother in a predominantly white neighborhood. She had to face a considerable amount of racism while growing up.

She attended Bedford High School before enrolling at Cuyahoga Community College to study broadcast journalism. As a student, she was very active in extra-curricular activities and also served as the head cheerleader and class president.

As a teenager she participated in several beauty pageants and won the Miss Teen All American in 1985 and Miss Ohio USA in 1986.

She was adjudged the first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant in 1986. This success inspired her to ditch her studies and pursue a career as a fashion model.

She moved to New York City to pursue a career in acting in 1989. She struggled a lot initially and even had to live in a homeless shelter for a short while. She was offered a role in the television series ‘Living Dolls’ which was however cancelled.

She made her film debut in 1991 in a minor role in Spike Lee’s ‘Jungle Fever’. She played Vivian, a drug addict with such dedication that she got noticed for her acting skills.

He played the title role in ‘Alex Haley’s Queen’, a television miniseries that was aired in three installments in February 1993 on CBS. She played a strong minded biracial woman in the series for which she was greatly appreciated.

In 1995, she played a drug addict Khaila Richards in ‘Losing Isaiah’. The movie revolves around a cocaine addicted woman who first abandons her infant only to engage in a long custodial battle later on.

Her other movies for the decade of 1990s include: ‘Executive Decision’ (1996), ‘BAPS’ (1997) and ‘Bulworth’ (1998).

She is best known for her role as Leticia Musgrove in ‘Monster’s Ball’ in which she played a woman whose husband is on death row. This movie won her widespread acclaim and made her one of the most sought after actresses in Hollywood.

Her portrayal of a popular real-life stripper and dancer who suffers from dissociative identity disorder and has two alters in the movie ‘Frankie & Alice’ is one of her most challenging and critically acclaimed roles.