Octavia Spencer

Birth Name: Octavia Lenora Spencer 

Nickname/Stage Name: Octavia Spencer

Birth Date: May 25, 1970

Genres: Comedy, Drama

Occupation(s): Actress, Author, Producer

Years Active: 1996 till Present

Net Worth: $14 million

 

Personal Life

Octavia Spencer was born in Montgomery, Alabama. She has six siblings. Her father passed away when she was thirteen years old. To the best of knowledge, the actress is single. She stated in November 2016 that she was working so much that she had only spent six weeks at home that year, perhaps leaving no room for a romantic life. She has dyslexia.

Education

She graduated from Jefferson Davis High School in 1988 and studied at Auburn University, Montgomery. She majored in English with a double minor in Journalism and Theater.

Career

Spencer worked as an intern on the set of The Long Walk Home, the 1990 film starring Whoopi Goldberg. She moved to Los Angeles in 1997 and made her Hollywood debut as a nurse in Joel Schumacher's A Time to Kill. 

She made her stage debut in the play The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Wife. It is her first and only play as she says she suffers from intense stage fright.

Her brief appearance in Seven Pounds got her major praise and media attention in 2008 and in  April of the following year, she was listed by Entertainment Weekly among its '25 Funniest Actresses in Hollywood' list.

Spencer starred alongside Taraji P. Henson in Hidden Figures, a movie about the female African-American mathematicians at NASA who contributed to its success in the 1960s Space Race.

Awards

African American Film Critics Award (2011, 2014, 2017)

Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award (2011)

Award Circuit Community Award (2011)

Gold Derby Award (2011)

Hollywood Film Festival Award (2011)

North Texas Film Critics Association Award (2011)

Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Award (2011)

Southeastern Film Critics Association Award (2011)

Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award (2011)

Palm Springs International Film Festival Award (2011, 2016)

Satellite Award (2011, 2017)

National Board of Review Award (2011, 2013, 2016)

NAACP Award (2012, 2018, 2021)

Academy Award (2012)

BAFTA Award (2012)

Critics' Choice Award (2012)

Black Reel Award (2012, 2013)

SAG Award (2012, 2017)

Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award (2016)

San Diego Film Critics Society Award (2016)

Women Film Critics Circle Award (2016)

Critics Award (2017)

Producers Guild of America Award (2020)

Quotes

"I was not a girl scout, but I try to be very prepared. I triple-Spanx!"

"You can't rest on your laurels. Because if you go in there and stink up the room, they go, 'They gave that one as Oscar?'"

"Meeting Oprah Winfrey, I cried like a baby. Meeting Steven Spielberg, I cried like a baby. Meeting Denzel Washington, I gushed like a crazy woman."

Trivia

Is a lover of antiques.

Is a good friend of Melissa McCarthy

Is a lifelong fan of the horror/fantasy genre and claims to have seen every film directed and executive produced by Guillermo del Toro.

Movies

A Time to Kill (1996)

Blue Streak (1999)

Big Momma's House (2000)

Spider-Man (2002)

Coach Carter (2004)

Pulse (2006)

The Help (2011)

Fruitvale Station (2012)

The Shape of Water (2017)

Onward (2019)

Thunder Force (2021)