Actress Quote by Nafessa Williams

I only became an actor to get your attention, to challenge the archetype of an African American male; I can't be anything else in…

— Isaiah Washington

I don't walk around all the time thinking of myself as African American, but oftentimes in Hollywood, you are reminded of that in ways…

— Salim Akil

I've spent my whole career trying to stay out of any box that anyone could put me in. 'I'm going to do a play…

— Audra McDonald

When you're a Black actress, the box that we often get put in is so small. And me being a dark-skinned Black actress, the…

— KiKi Layne

“I am not 'African American' —I am black American.”

— John McWhorter

Whatever good I have accomplished as an actress I believe came in direct proportion to my efforts to portray black women who have made…

— Cicely Tyson

I always say it's hard to cast an African-American film sometimes because those kinds of actors just aren't out there.

— Rick Famuyiwa

Being an actor myself I realize that all actors believe they are qualified to play any role. If you showed me a script with…

— Richard Masur

You can't be perceived as 'the black actress who doesn't get the same kind of roles as the white actress.' You gotta run the…

— Viola Davis

I would love to get a role that changes the landscape of being an African American woman in television and film.

— Candice Patton

Some black filmmakers will say, "I don't want to be considered a black filmmaker, I'm a filmmaker." I don't think that. I'm a black…

— Ava DuVernay

I know I'm a black actor, but really, I'm an actor who happens to be black.

— Stephan James