Sanaa Lathan

SANAA LATHAN earned a Tony Award nomination for her Broadway performance as Beneatha Younger in "A Raisin in the Sun," a role she later recreated in the highly rated and critically acclaimed ABC production, alongside Sean Combs.

She played the title role in the comedy "By The Way, Meet Vera Stark," in an extended engagement at the 2econd Stage Theatre in Manhattan. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, the play is a 70-year journey through the life of a headstrong African-America maid and budding actress, and her tangled relationship with her boss, a white Hollywood star desperately grasping to hold on to her career. Lathan was also seen on stage as Maggie in London's West End in the critically acclaimed and award-winning revival of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

She lent her voice to Fox's animated series "The Cleveland Show." Her other credits include director Tyler Perry's feature "The Family that Preys," starring alongside Perry, Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard; "A Wonderful World," opposite Matthew Broderick; and "Something New," for which she received an NAACP Award nomination for Best Actress; as well as a role on the FX Network series "Nip/Tuck," for which she also received an NAACP nomination.

Her additional feature credits include the romantic comedy "Brown Sugar," alongside Taye Diggs, Queen Latifah and Mos Def, which reunited her with Rick Famuyiwa, who was also the director of "The Wood." Lathan wowed audiences and critics in Gina Prince-Blythewood's romantic drama "Love and Basketball," with Omar Epps.

Lathan received her first NAACP Image Award nomination, for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, for the romantic comedy "The Best Man."
The film, co-starring Morris Chestnut and Harold Perrineau, received rave reviews and is one of the top ten highest grossing African American films in history. She also starred in "Alien vs. Predator," a box office success for director Paul W.S. Anderson, and the thriller "Out of Time," with Denzel Washington.

© 2011 Warner Bros. Pictures