vcalloway@nul.org
Speaker Bio
Vanessa Bell Calloway has earned eight NAACP Image Award nominations in a career that spans stage, film, and television. She won the NAACP Theater Award for best actress for her critically acclaimed role as Zora Neale Hurston in “Letters From Zora.”
Calloway is perhaps best known for portraying the first grandmother, Marian Robinson, in the film “South Side with You.” Other film credits include “Coming to America,” “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” “Love Don’t Cost A Thing ,” “Crimson Tide,” and “Cheaper By The Dozen.” She also voiced the lead female role in the animated feature “Bebe’s Kids.” She stars in the upcoming releases “Dragged Across Concrete” starring Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn, and the independent film “Vengeance.”
Currently, Calloway stars In the Bounce TV’s hit drama “Saints & Sinners” as the matriarch Lady Ella and will recur in the fourth season of the STARZ series“Survivors Remorse.” Her TV career began with a role on ABC’s “All My Children” and continued with appearances on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” TV ONE’s “The Miki Howard Story,” TNT’S “Murder in the First,” and BET’s “Real Husbands Of Hollywood,” among many others.
Her two hit web series – “In the Company of Friends” and “That’s So Very Vannessa” – are available on demand at www.inthecompanyoffriends.tv.