A Conversation with Alfre Woodard @ Bay Street Theater
October 12, 2019: In celebration of one of this year’s most talked about performances for her role in Chinonye Chukwu’s CLEMENCY, the HIFF festival honored Alfre Woodard with a special A Conversation With… featuring the Emmy Award winner, Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning actress in person for a career spanning discussion.
For her work as an actor, Alfre Woodard has received an Oscar® nomination, four Emmy Awards and seventeen Emmy nominations, three SAG Awards and a Golden Globe. Woodard’s illustrious body of work includes her Oscar-nominated performance in Martin Ritt’s CROSS CREEK; HBO’s MANDELA (ACE Award for her portrayal of Winnie Mandela); Lawrence Kasdan’s GRAND CANYON; John Sayles’ PASSION FISH; Joseph Sargent’s MISS EVERS’ BOYS (Emmy, SAG, Golden Globe Awards); Spike Lee’s CROOKLYN; Gina Prince-Bythewood’s LOVE AND BASKETBALL; Tyler Perry’s THE FAMILY THAT PREYS; and Maya Angelou’s DOWN IN THE DELTA. Her television work includes ABC’s Desperate Housewives and HBO’s True Blood. Woodard co-starred in Lifetime’s hit remake of Steel Magnolias, (SAG and Emmy nominations), for which she won an NAACP Image Award.
Most recently, Woodard appeared in the critically acclaimed 12 YEARS A SLAVE, directed by Steve McQueen; Marvel’s CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR; New Line’s ANNABELLE; and the Netflix Original JUANITA. On the small screen, she most recently starred in Marvel’s Luke Cage, and will next appear in the Apple series See.
Woodard can currently be heard as the voice of Sarabi in Jon Favreau’s THE LION KING, and this fall she stars in Clemency, which received critical praise at the Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Grand Jury Prize.
In addition to her acting career, Woodard is a longtime activist. She is the co-founder of Artists for a New South Africa, and in 2009, President Barack Obama appointed her to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. She is an active advocate for the arts in education, working to narrow the achievement gap and increase student engagement through the arts.
Photography: Barry Gordin
