Angela Bassett Accepts Disney Legend Award: Watch

Angela Bassett is officially a Disney Legend!

The weekend’s festivities will conclude tonight with the Disney Legends Awards Ceremony at the Honda Center. Fourteen outstanding individuals will be honored for their significant contributions to Disney’s legacy. Hosted by Ryan Seacrest, the event promises special guests and surprise performances that are sure to leave a lasting impression. This grand Hollywood spectacle celebrates key figures in Disney’s history for their remarkable storytelling and innovation. Fans who can’t attend in person can stream the Disney Legends Awards Ceremony on Disney+ this Monday, August 12, at 5 PM ET.

Angela Bassett’s Career and Disney Legend Status

From her breakout role as single mother Reva Devereaux in John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood to her portrayal of the fierce Queen Ramonda of Wakanda in Marvel’s Black Panther films, Angela Bassett’s unmistakable voice, signature delivery, and commanding presence capture immediate attention.

Born in New York City, Angela lived in North Carolina until the age of four when her family moved to St. Petersburg, Florida. As the first Black student from Boca Ciega High School admitted to the National Honors Society, Angela pursued higher education at Yale University. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in African American Studies in 1980. She later achieved a Master of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama in 1983.

In 1988, she relocated to Los Angeles. Angela has portrayed many real-life figures, including Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks, but it was her powerful depiction of Tina Turner in Touchstone Pictures’ What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993) that garnered her numerous accolades, including an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe® for Best Actress, making her the first Black performer to win in this category. She received two Emmy® nominations for outstanding narrator for National Geographic’s The Flood (2018) and the Disney+ docuseries The Imagineering Story (2019) and earned her second Academy Award nomination, this time in the Best Supporting Actress category, for the role of Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022). In addition to starring and executive producing the hit drama 9-1-1, Angela voiced Dorothea Williams in Disney and Pixar’s Academy Award-winning animated feature Soul (2020) and received an Honorary Academy Award in 2024.