Lynn Whitfield

Whitfield spent her career after breakthrough performance as Josephine Baker playing the leading roles in a number of made for television movies in the 1990s, and had several starring roles in films, include performances in A Thin Line Between Love and Hate (1996), Gone Fishin\' (1997), Eve\'s Bayou (1997), Stepmom (1998), Head of State (2003), Madea\'s Family Reunion (2006) and The Women (2008). Whitfield also starred in a number of smaller movies in the 2000s and 2010s. In 2016, she began starring as villainous Lady Mae Greenleaf in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama series, Greenleaf. Whitfield has won five NAACP Image Awards.\n', '

Whitfield was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the daughter of Jean (née Butler)who is African-American, an officer of a finance agency, and Valerian Smith -who is Creole, a dentist. She is the eldest of four children and a third-generation BFA graduate fro…