The best Taraji P. Henson movies and TV shows include a strong mix of social message dramas, crime epics, and romantic comedies, revealing her ability to shine regardless of the genre. Henson was able to get her foot in the door in Hollywood in the early 1990s when she received her SAG hip after working as a background performer. However, she didn't finally hit it big until 2001, when she had a major role in the comedy-drama Baby Boy opposite Tyrese Gibson.

Since that time, Henson has made her name in the industry. She impressed many critics and fans with her role in the independent film Hustle & Flow before going on to gain critical acclaim in the David Fincher drama The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, where she earned an Oscar nomination. She moved on to work with Tyler Perry and has since earned six BET Award wins, six Emmy Award nominations, a Golden Globes win, and 12 NAA Image Awards in 23 nominations.

10 Proud Mary (2018)

Mary Goodwin

In 2018, Taraji P. Henson starred in a movie that paid homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s. This film was Proud Mary. In the movie, Henson plays Mary Goodwin, an assassin who murders a current target but notices the man's young son is in the apartment as well. Mary then decides to keep an eye on the boy, knowing he will need all the help he can get with his dad dead, and she finally takes him in after an incident after someone tries to rob him. Not knowing that Mary killed his dad, the two bond.

Critics mostly dismissed the film when it was released, although many praised Henson for her performance, saying she proved she could carry an action movie on her own shoulders. The main complaints go toward the script and what many called a dissatisfying ending, but none of that stopped Henson from proving that she was a star.

9 Think Like A Man (2012)

Lauren Harris

In 2012, Taraji P. Henson was part of the ensemble cast for the romantic comedy Think Like a Man. This film follows four couples that are going through some hilarious difficulties. All four women have read the Steve Harvey book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Men. The four men, learning this, try to use Harvey's advice to turn the tables on the women — but when the women realize what is going on, things get out of control. Henson is part of the "The Mama's Boy" vs. "The Single Mom" storyline.

Her partner in the film is played by Terrence J. The rest of the cast is just as great, with Kevin Hart, Meagan Good, Regina Hall, Jerry Ferrara, Gabrielle Union, Romany Malco, and Michael Ealy rounding out the other couples. While critics gave it negative reviews, it was a box office success and resulted in a sequel that arrived just two years later called Think Like a Man Too. Most of the cast from the first movie returned for the sequel.

8 Boston Legal (2007-2008)

Whitney Rome

Taraji P. Henson has been in some great television shows as well, and her first major TV role came in the series Boston Legal. The TV show was a legal comedy-drama by David E. Kelley that originally starred James Spader, William Shatner, and Candice Bergen. Henson played Whitney Rome, a strong-willed associate who transferred to Crane, Poole & Schmidt's New York offices after a breakup. She gets an immediate case when she shows up and proves she belongs.

She was a character in the fourth season of the series but was written out before the fifth season arrived. That fifth season was the final one before the show was canceled. During its run, Boston Legal won five Primetime Emmy Awards with 26 nominations. Henson was part of the cast when the series earned two SAG nominations for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2008, 2009).

7 Smokin' Aces (2006)

Sharice Watters

In 2006, Taraji P. Henson was cast in the action thriller Smokin' Aces by writer/director Joe Carnahan. This was a fun action film that saw a Las Vegas magician become a mafia informant. When he makes this decision, a $1 million bounty is put on his head, and a plethora of assassins descend on Las Vegas, intent on collecting the bounty. Jeremy Piven plays the magician, while Ben Affleck is a bail bondsman, and Ryan Reynolds is an FBI special agent — both trying to protect the man.

However, the assassins include a who's who of acting talent. They include Chris Pine, Common, Tommy Flanagan, Alicia Keys, Taraji P. Henson, Néstor Carbonell, Kevin Durand, Maury Sterling, and more. The critics' score was low, but this was a film that was made to become a cult classic, and that is exactly what happened. It was a box office success, a huge hit on home video, and has all the laughs and violence anyone would want from the genre.

6 Hustle & Flow (2005)

Shug

While she had gained attention for her role in Baby Boy in 2001, critics really took notice when Taraji P. Henson starred in a ing role in Hustle & Flow. The film stars Terrence Howard as DJay, a pimp and drug dealer who grows disenfranchised with his life and decides to attempt a career in hip hop music. He proves to be talented, and when he raps about life on the streets, he soon starts to climb the ladder. Henson plays Shug, one of DJay's prostitutes, who soon becomes connected to his musical career.

Shug, who becomes pregnant, maintains her job when she starts to sing hooks for his songs, and she soon becomes a romantic partner to DJay. Critics praised the film, awarding it an 82% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It also picked up two Oscar nominations, including Best Actor for Terrence Howard. Henson won Best ing Actress at the Black Reel Awards while also earning an NAA Image Award nomination.

5 Hidden Figures (2016)

Katherine Johnson

Based on the novel of the same name, Historical Figures is a biographical drama film about three women who helped NASA win the Space Race — all from behind the scenes. Because they were three Black women, they were not allowed to be involved on a hands-on level. They did everything while the white men in charge took all the credit. The three women are mathematicians Katherine Goble Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe).

Kevin Costner, Jim Parsons, Kirsten Dunst, Mahershala Ali, Aldis Hodge, and Glen Powell helped round out the cast. The film was a massive success, making $236 million at the box office while also receiving three Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. It has a 93% Rotten Tomatoes score. Henson won several awards, including a BET Award, MTV Movie & TV Award, and an NAA Image Award, along with many other nominations.

4 The Color Purple (2023)

Shug Avery

In 2023, Hollywood remade The Color Purple. The original was a critically acclaimed Steven Spielberg movie starring actresses Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Avery, and Whoopi Goldberg. The remake brought in Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and Fantasia Barrino to star as the three women at the heart of the story. The plot remains the same, with two sisters separated as children who go through hardships in life as they grow up and finally reunite in the end.

Based on the seminal novel by Alice Walker, the remake was still critically acclaimed, with an 81% Rotten Tomatoes score, but it was a box office failure. It also wasn't as big at awards time, with only Danielle Brooks receiving an Oscar nomination and the film getting shut out otherwise. However, it won nine Black Reel Awards out of 19 nominations (including a nomination for Henson). Henson won an NAA Image Award for her performance, one of 11 wins for the film.

3 Person Of Interest (2011-2015)

Detective Jocelyn "Joss" Carter

While Boston Legal was Taraji P. Henson's first major television role, she got a much larger role in the science fiction crime drama Person of Interest in 2011. In this series, Jim Caviezel plays John Reese, a former CIA operative who is brought in to help stop crimes before they happen using a computer program created to predict future terrorist attacks. His co-stars include Michael Emerson as Harold Finch, who created the program, and Taraji P. Henson as Joss Carter, an NYPD detective.

Henson was a lead cast member for the first three seasons and a guest star in the fourth season before finally leaving the show. She opens the show trying to bring in Reese as a person of interest, but she soon becomes an ally when she realizes the CIA tried to assassinate him without due process. The show was a huge success and received universal critical praise. Henson won an NAA Image Award for her performance in 2014.

2 The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2008)

Queenie

In 2008, Taraji P. Henson took on an important role in the David Fincher romantic fantasy drama The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. In this film, Brad Pitt stars as the titular character, who is born as an old man and then ages in reverse until the end, when he dies as an infant. The film follows his life as he grows younger while those he loves grow older. Based on the story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the film was a massive box-office success and was nominated for 13 Oscars.

One of those Oscar nominations was a Best ing Actress nod for Taraji P. Henson for her role as Queenie, the woman who took in Benjamin after his father abandoned him and helped raise him to become the man he would turn into. Brad Pitt also earned a nomination for his role as Benjamin, while the film received a Best Picture nomination and Fincher for Best Director.

1 Empire (2015-2020)

Loretha "Cookie" Lyon

In what might be the biggest role of Taraji P. Henson's career, she played Loretha "Cookie" Lyon in the Fox music drama series Empire. The series follows a fictional hip-hop music and entertainment company called Empire Entertainment and the founders' family as they fight for control. Terrence Howard, who also starred with Henson in her breakout movie Hustle & Flow, stars as Lucious Lyon, a former drug dealer turned hip-hop mogul. Henson plays his wife, Cookie, who served a 17-year prison sentence after taking the fall for Lyon.

When the show starts, Cookie gets out of prison and wants to get her part of Empire Entertainment and bring the family back together, but then decides to start her own label. Henson was so popular in the series that Fox had planned a spinoff based on her in the lead — though the Cookie spinoff was unfortunately canceled. For her role in Empire, Taraji P. Henson won a Golden Globe Award, was nominated for a Primetime Emmy, and also won awards at the NAA Image Awards and BET Awards.