Here, we we’ll take a look at Taraji P Henson net worth, highlights of her career, early life and education, relationships, and even her social media handles. Let’s get to know about this incomparable icon of Taraji P. Henson.
Taraji P. Henson is more than an actress, she is a powerhouse of talent, grit, and truth. From acting and singing to even writing a best-selling memoir, the road to fame taken by Taraji is an inspiring story of determination and passion. Of course, she is very well known in a number of iconic films and series that have placed her amongst the leaders in Hollywood.
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Taraji P Henson Early Life and Education
Taraji P Henson, also called, Taraji Penda Henson, is an American actress, a singer, a voiceover actress and an author, who was born on 11th of September, 1970 in Southeast Washington, D.C. Both of her names, Taraji and Penda, originate from the Swahili language and have a good meaning. Taraji means hope and Penda means love.
Taraji’s names are a testament to what she was raised up with, that is hope and love. Bringing a child forth into this world is the most beautiful thing and raising that child with love and care is the ultimate goal of every parent. Taraji’s father is named Boris Henson.
During his lifetime, he worked as a janitor and was also a skilled metal fabricator. Mr. Henson was a hardworking man who raised up his daughter the best way a father could and was the main source of moral support during her upbringing. Taraji’s mother, Bernice Gordon, worked at a department store in Washington, D.C., which used to be known as Woodward and Lothrop.
She was a senior manager. Aside being a career woman, Bernice was a loving mother to her daughter, Taraji. Having a sibling means you have someone who’s got your back for life and Taraji has an adorable sister named April Henson who is her biggest supporter.
In addition to this, Taraji also has a younger brother known as Shawn Henson who likes to keep a private life. Taraji’s parents divorced when she was two years old, but that didn’t stop her from living life like a regular kid would. After completing elementary school, Taraji applied to a performing arts high school.
Taraji application was rejected and instead, she went to Oxon Hill High School from which she graduated in 1988. After graduating from high school, Taraji attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University where she spent her first year in college studying electrical engineering. Turns out electrical engineering wasn’t for her as she suffered bad grades, especially in pre-calculus.
Taraji later transferred to Howard University where she studied theater and quickly adapted to life at Howard. In order to pay for her college fee, Taraji worked two jobs. In the mornings, she worked as a secretary at the Pentagon and in the evenings as a waitress on a cruise ship where she’d entertain guests by singing and dancing.
While at Howard, Taraji honed her skills in singing, acting, and dancing and in 1995, she proudly graduated with a bachelor’s degree of fine arts in theater and ventured into acting.
Taraji P Henson Height
Taraji P Henson stands at 5’4″. Taraji average body build weighs 60 kilograms. Her zodiac sign is Virgo.
Taraji P Henson Personality
When it comes to her personality, Taraji is an outgoing and a socially confident lady who doesn’t shy from speaking out her mind. She’s also a competitive character who also knows the importance of having fun. When it comes to having fun, Taraji enjoys cooking and her favorite dish is chili with meat.
Taraji Henson not only loves cooking but is also good at it. For this reason, she’s been nicknamed Cookie ever since her college days. Funny enough, this later become her character name in the television show Empire.
Taraji P Henson Career
So, how did Taraji enter into acting? Let’s roll the years back. In 1996, that is one year after completing college, Taraji moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue a professional acting career. She was only 26 at the time.She also had a baby. And the funny thing is that she only had $700 in her bank account. How could she make it in Los Angeles with that amount of money? Was she taking some unnecessary risk? Well, you see, Taraji has been a go-getter ever since her college days, so this didn’t bother her.
Only thing in her mind was how she’d make it to the auditions. Her first two years in LA, that is from 1996 and 1997, only comprised of auditions and no call-ups thereafter. She was also working an office job to make ends meet, so she just but survived.
However, there was light at the end of the tunnel as she eventually landed her first professional acting gig in the year 1997 when she played a role on an episode of the television sitcom Sister’s Sister. In the year 1998, Taraji had a role on the sitcom Smart Guy and also on the popular medical drama series ER.
Life was beginning to be good for her, and it was going to be even better. In the year 2001, Taraji got her major breakthrough as she was featured in the film Baby Boy. This film had casts such as Tyrese Gibson, Ving Rhames, and the rapper Snoop Dogg. In the year 2004, Taraji was cast in the film Hustle & Flow in which she shared the screen set with fellow Empire co-star Terrence Howard.
In addition to acting this film, Taraji also produced an amazing performance as she sang the film’s soundtrack titled It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp. This soundtrack won an Academy Award for Best Song. In the year 2008, Taraji played a challenging role in the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Brad Pitt, who played the titular character, also featured in the film, but it was Taraji’s performance that took the day. For this reason, she went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In the year 2008, Taraji appeared in Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys, and in 2009, she appeared in I Can Do Bad All By Myself, which was also a Tyler Perry film.
In the year 2010, she played a role in the remake of The Karate Kid alongside the legendary Jackie Chan and Will Smith’s son Jaden Smith. The film was a commercial success, grossing over $350 million at the box office. Speaking of partners, “we all need someone who will hold our hand and walk the journey of life with us. Sometimes, it works out, sometimes it doesn’t, right?”
Taraji often considers acting to be therapeutic and her passion for acting extends beyond films. She’s not only been a feature actor in films, but also a main cast in television shows. From 2002 to 2004, she had a role on the television show, The Division.
From 2007 to 2008, she had a role on the fourth season of Boston Legal. Person of Interest is also another television show that she had a role in that is from 2011 to 2015. Most recently, she played a lead role portraying the character Cookie Lyon on the drama series Empire alongside her longtime working partner Terrence Howard.
Taraji P Henson Relationships
Taraji likes to give love and be given it back. She’s had her fair share of love when it comes to dating, so let’s have a look at the men who dated the beautiful Taraji Henson. William Johnson, who sadly passed on in the year 2003, was Taraji’s first love interest.
The two started dating while Taraji was in her junior year at Howard University. The couple later split for good in 1994, but by that time, Taraji was already pregnant. She gave birth to a son, whom she named Marcel Johnson.
The American actor Hill Harper also dated Taraji Henson. The two were happy together from 2002 to 2005, but Harper had a fear of commitment, so their relationship naturally died out. Taraji never likes to be single for long, and soon after the breakup she dated the American rapper Common.
The two dated from 2005 to 2007. In the year 2008, Taraji dated the American former basketball player, Lamar Odom. They broke up in August 2009 after dating for almost 8 months. It’s also rumored that in 2010, Taraji dated the Canadian rapper Aubrey Graham. Popularly known as Drake, Taraji refutes these claims by saying that Drake was only a friend and she only had a crush on him. In 2015, Taraji dated a former NFL player by the name Kelvin Hayden.
The couple’s love went from strength to strength, and in 2018, they even got engaged to be married. Unfortunately, not all relationships are meant to end in marriage as theirs came down crumbling like a deck of cards in 2020 during lockdown. This really drained Taraji and she’s stayed out of relationships ever since.
Taraji P Henson Net Worth
The self-made Taraji P Henson, who at some point only had $700 in her bank account, worked her way to the top and became an award-winning actress in Hollywood. You’d expect her net worth to be in the hundreds of millions, right? Well, that’s not the case because according to sources from various publications, Taraji P Henson has a net worth estimate of about $25 million.
Now, this is a lot of money to most of us, but for a celebrity with the status and class like Taraji, the net worth is relatively low. So, how did it all happen? And how did we arrive at this? Well, in a recent interview, Taraji talked of pay inequality in the acting industry, especially on black female actresses. Over the years, she’s been a victim of this and has often been underpaid.
For instance, in the 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Despite a remarkable performance in the film and even an Academy Award nomination to her name, Taraji was offered a salary of $100,000, but eventually settled for $150,000 after negotiations.
This was a small compensation of a salary compared to her co-star Brad Pitt, who was paid $10 million. Have you watched the 2023 film The Color Purple? Did you know that it was the second-highest-grossing film to ever debut at Christmas? Despite all the hype, it’s alleged that Taraji along with other co-stars such as Fantasia Barrino were never paid well. Yes, let’s put it this way, Oprah did them dirty and allowed them to be paid them less, allegedly.
Taraji P Henson Businesses
Taraji still continues to raise her concerns on pay inequality in Hollywood in a bid to help young and upcoming black female actresses. Aside these contract disputes, Taraji is a smart woman who ventured into other business to boost her income.
Over the years, the Empire actress has made a number of business deals and endorsements. In the year 2016, she teamed up with the American cosmetics manufacturer McCosmetics to launch her own makeup collection, which has been doing quite well ever since.
The first and most visible aspect of a woman’s beauty is her hair, therefore women are looking to spend a lot of money on hair products. Taraji knows this and has taken advantage of it by owning TPH by Taraji Hair Care, which is a company dealing with hair care products.
Taraji P Henson Houses
You have to be smart to make investments in real estate, and our dear Taraji has made sure of this by buying and selling houses for a profit, which is another thing that keeps money flowing into her pocket. In the year 2010, she bought a $1.7 million house set on Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, California.
The 4,200-square-foot fancy home, which was built in 2009, has three floors comprising four bedrooms, each with its own en-suite bathroom and walk-in closet.
The house also had a spacious gourmet kitchen with custom wood cabinetry and stainless steel appliances. Physical exercise is vital to one’s health, and the house had a modern gym to ensure that. When it comes to entertainment, the Hollywood Hills house had a media room and a pool table area.
This house was a dream house to live in or rent out, and it came as no surprise when Taraji sold it for $2.4 million making some cool profit. Taraji is obsessed with houses, and especially condos. In 2017, she bought a condo in Chicago for almost $2 million.
The 2,500-square-feet luxury apartment boasts three bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathroom units. She also owned another condo in the same building that she purchased for $1.4 million prior to the previous one we’ve mentioned. All these real estate investments have appreciated over time, adding to her net worth.
Taraji P Henson Cars
A car is a necessary asset to move around from city to city, especially for a film star like Taraji. Let’s have a look at Taraji P. Henson Car Collection. The Maserati Quattroporte is a car owned by Taraji.
This car retails at $150,000 and among its features include a 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine. A Chevrolet Suburban purchased for $60,000 is also another car owned by the Empire actress. It’s one of her favorite cars as it boasts reliability and comfort.
Taraji also owns a Mercedes S-Class, which as the name suggests is truly a touch of class. She bought this powerful six-cylinder engine car for $100,000.
Taraji P Henson bet Awards & Other Awards
She was honored with the 2015 Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series for her work on Empire. She was also the first actress of African descent to win this honor in the history of the program.
In addition, she received a Golden Globe nomination for this series and received two Emmy Award nominations. That’s in the year 2015 and the year 2016. Amidst all of the success, Taraji Henson has remained humble and has always been selfless when it comes to helping out, especially on matters concerning mental health.
As a tribute to her late father, Taraji founded the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation, which deals with the mental health illness. Taraji has always had a soft spot for animals and pets and has used her celebrity status to campaign for animal rights. She is against all forms of animal cruelty and is a supporter of people for the ethical treatment of animals.
Taraji P. Henson’s social media handles
| Platform | Username/Handle | Link |
|---|---|---|
| @tarajiphenson | ||
| @tarajiphenson | ||
| @TarajiPHenson | ||
| TikTok | @tarajiphenson | TikTok |
Conclusion
Taraji P. Henson has had a career most people could only dream of. Through her tenacity and diligence, she’s proven that one can go from nothing to something. A successful career deserves appreciation, right? To date, Taraji has been celebrated with numerous awards and accolades. She even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which is an achievement not boasted by many. Additionally, Taraji has been nominated for a handful of significant roles she has played in.
A good career woman is what Taraji has been and we are pretty sure she’ll keep entertaining us for years and years to come.
