Octavia Spencer

Octavia Spencer

Octavia Lenora Spencer is an American actress, author, and producer. She made her film debut in the 1996 drama A Time to Kill. Spencer is best known for her starring roles as Serenity Johnson on Comedy Central’s Halfway Home, and Constance Grady on Ugly Betty. As an author, Spencer created the children’s book series Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective.

About Octavia Spencer in brief

Summary Octavia SpencerOctavia Lenora Spencer is an American actress, author, and producer. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. She made her film debut in the 1996 drama A Time to Kill. Spencer is best known for her starring roles as Serenity Johnson on Comedy Central’s Halfway Home, and Constance Grady, the amorous INS caseworker on Ugly Betty. As an author, Spencer created the children’s book series Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective. She has published two books in the series, titled The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit and The Sweetest Heist in History. Spencer has dyslexia. She was born in Montgomery, Alabama, and has six siblings, including sisters Rosa and Areka. Spencer graduated from Jefferson Davis High School in 1988. She studied at Auburn University at Montgomery, and graduated from Auburn University, where she majored in English with a double minor in journalism and theater. Spencer worked as an intern on the set of The Long Walk Home, a film starring Whoopi Goldberg.

In 1997, she moved to Los Angeles on the advice of her friend Tate Taylor, the future director of The Help, in which Spencer would later star. Spencer has made a number of guest appearances on television series, including Raising the Bar, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Big Bang Theory, Wizards of Waverly Place, Grounded for Life, ER, Titus, Becker, 30 Rock and Dharma & Greg, plus a recurring role on the sitcom Mom. In August 2010, Spencer joined Viola Davis, Emma Stone and Bryce Dallas Howard in the film adaptation of Emma Stone’s novel The Help. She also had a role in the feature film Love at First Hiccup, alongside Beth Grant, Ahna O’Reilly and Byron Lane. She played the voice of Minny on the audio version of The Captain on The Captain, by Kathryn Stockett. Spencer was honored by the CIC as a finalist as a Poetry Poetry Award finalist for the REEL Award for the novel The Captain.