Octavia Spencer
Spencer made her film debut in the 1996 drama A Time to Kill. Following a decade of brief roles in film and television, her breakthrough came in 2011 when she played a maid in 1960s America in the drama film The Help, which won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In ensuing years, she won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Ryan Coogler's biopic Fruitvale Station (2013), had a recurring role in the CBS sitcom Mom (2013–2015), and starred in the Fox drama series Red Band Society (2014–2015).
Spencer's roles as other black women in 1960s America, as Dorothy Vaughan in the biopic Hidden Figures (2016) and a cleaning woman in the fantasy The Shape of Water (2017), earned her two consecutive nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first black actress to achieve such feat, as well as the first, and to date only, to be nominated twice after winning. She has since starred in The Divergent Series (2015–16), The Shack (2017), Gifted (2017), Instant Family (2018), Luce (2019), Ma (2019), Onward (2020), and Spirited (2022). She led the Apple TV+ drama series Truth Be Told (2019–2023) and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her portrayal of Madam C. J. Walker in the Netflix miniseries Self Made (2020).
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 (2013) and The Sweetest Heist in History (2015).
Biography from the Wikipedia article Octavia Spencer. Licensed under CC-BY-SA. Full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Married at First Sight
Married at First Sight, the extreme social experiment where four couples will meet for the very first time on their wedding day. Three top relationship experts are controlling this radical experiment involving eight Aussie singles, using a mix of neuroscience and psychology to try to create four perfect matches. Relationship psychologist John Aiken has interviewed single applicants across the nation and built a detailed personal profile for each one. Neuropsychotherapist Dr Trisha Stratford compiled the detailed neurological profiles. And psychologist Sabina Read met the applicants in their own environment to prepare to pair them with the most suitable partners. These four extremely brave and hopeful couples will face the most terrifying wedding imaginable – tying the knot with someone they have never laid eyes on.
Amandaland
Following three series of the Merman-produced, BAFTA award-winning series Motherland, a brand-new spin-off, Amandaland, is coming to the BBC, focused on Amanda.
Post her divorce, Amanda has had to downsize and up sticks to South Harlesden, or as the Estate Agent calls it SoHa (definitely not the area around Wormwood Scrubs prison).
With both Manus and Georgie now at secondary school, Amanda has to try and get her head around raising teenagers, dealing with modern motherhood horrors like teenage drinking, fake Instagram accounts and eco anxiety. Not even a woman as certain of her parenting as Amanda can deal with these nightmares alone.
Then there's Amanda's mother Felicity who is constantly around, and completely in denial that she is, in fact, lonely. Theirs is a slightly unhealthy co-dependent relationship based on backhanded compliments and veiled snipes about her new home.
After a brief spell of freedom, Anne is sucked back into being Amanda's minion to help her navigate the social scene with the other parents at the children's new school. Thank God for Anne.
Poppa's House
Poppa's House revolves around a legendary talk radio host and happily divorced "Poppa" who has his point of view challenged at work when a new female co-host is hired, and at home where he finds himself still parenting his adult son, a brilliant dreamer who is trying to pursue his passion while being a responsible father and husband.