Angela Bassett Movie Trivia Questions
Yale-trained, two-time Oscar-nominated, and the Queen Mother of Wakanda. Angela Bassett's career is one of the great bodies of work in Black cinema.
Questions & Answers
Where did Angela Bassett train as an actress?
Answer: Yale School of Drama
She holds a Bachelor's from Yale and an MFA — one of Hollywood's most formally trained stars.
Which 1993 biographical film earned Angela Bassett her first Oscar nomination?
Answer: What's Love Got to Do With It — playing Tina Turner
Bassett learned Tina's signature moves; Turner herself called the performance 'stunning.'
In Waiting to Exhale (1995), what does Bassett's character Bernadine famously burn?
Answer: Her cheating husband's clothes and his BMW
The parking lot fire scene is one of the most cathartic moments in 90s film.
In How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), where does Stella rediscover herself?
Answer: Jamaica — and she falls for a much younger man named Winston
Based on Terry McMillan's autobiographical novel about her own real romance.
Angela Bassett plays which character in Boyz n the Hood (1991)?
Answer: Reva Styles, Tre's mother who sends him to live with Furious
It was one of her earliest major film roles — two years before What's Love Got to Do With It made her a star.
In Black Panther (2018), what is Bassett's character's relationship to T'Challa?
Answer: She plays Ramonda, his mother and the Queen Mother of Wakanda
The role required her to master a South African accent for authenticity.
Which 2022 film earned Angela Bassett her second Academy Award nomination?
Answer: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — as Queen Ramonda
She became the first actor to earn an Oscar nomination for a Marvel film.
In Notorious (2009), who does Angela Bassett play?
Answer: Voletta Wallace, the Notorious B.I.G.'s mother
Wallace was involved in the production and praised Bassett's portrayal of her.
Which TV drama has Angela Bassett starred in since 2018, playing a powerful LAPD sergeant?
Answer: 9-1-1, as Athena Grant
The show made her the highest-paid actress on American broadcast television.
Angela Bassett appeared in Strange Days (1995) alongside which co-star as his bodyguard Mace?
Answer: Ralph Fiennes
Director Kathryn Bigelow made Mace the film's moral center — Bassett's physicality drove the performance.
In Akeelah and the Bee (2006), Bassett plays what role opposite Laurence Fishburne?
Answer: Tanya Anderson, Akeelah's mother
She and Fishburne had previously shared the screen in What's Love Got to Do With It.
Angela Bassett directed which 2011 TV movie about a music legend?
Answer: Betty & Coretta — about Betty Shabazz and Coretta Scott King; she directed Lifetime's Whitney (2015)
Her directorial work shows range beyond her acting career.
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