Kerry Marisa Washington (born January 31, 1977) is an American actress. She has received several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award as well as nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and two Tony Awards. She was included in Time's 100 list of most influential people in 2014, and Forbes named her the eighth-highest-paid television actress in 2018. Washington gained wide recognition for starring as crisis management expert Olivia Pope in the ABC drama series Scandal (2012–2018). For her role, she was twice nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and once for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama. She was further Emmy-nominated for her roles as Anita Hill in the HBO political film Confirmation (2016), and a troubled mother in the Hulu miniseries Little Fires Everywhere (2020). Washington made her feature film debut acting in the drama Our Song (2000). She played Alicia Masters in the live-action Fantastic Four films of 2005 and 2007, and has taken roles in diverse films such as Ray (2004), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), The Last King of Scotland (2006), I Think I Love My Wife (2007), Mother and Child (2009), For Colored Girls (2010), and Django Unchained (2012). In 2024, she portrayed Major Charity Adams in the war film The Six Triple Eight. On stage, she made her Broadway debut in David Mamet's play Race (2009). She returned to the Broadway stage starring in the Christopher Demos-Brown play American Son and reprised her role in the 2019 television adaptation on Netflix.