Halle Maria Berry (b August 14, 1966) is an Emmy, Golden Globe, Golden Raspberry and Academy Award-winning American actress and former fashion model and beauty queen. In 2002, Berry won Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her role in Monster’s Ball.

Halle Berry in ‘Die Another Day’.

Before becoming an actress, she entered and won several beauty contests, including Miss Ohio USA, Miss Teen All-American, Miss USA (was first runner-up in 1986 to Christy Fichtner of Texas), and Miss World 1986 (as “Miss United States World”, she placed sixth in a contest won by Trinidad and Tobago’s Giselle Laronde).

Her breakthrough feature film role was in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever in which she played a drug addict named Vivian. Her first co-starring role was in the film Strictly Business. Another early role Berry played was the villain/friend in the Flintstones film as “Sharon Stone”, in a part rumored to have been intended for Sharon Stone. In 1996, she played the role of Sandra Beecher in Race the Sun. The year before, Berry caught the public’s attention with her portrayal as a female biracial slave in the TV adaption of Queen: The Story of an American Family, by Alex Haley.

In late 2001, Berry appeared as Leticia Musgrove, the wife of an executed murderer, in the film Monster’s Ball. The role earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress.

As Bond Girl Jinx in 2002’s Die Another Day she famously re-created the scene from Dr No, bursting from the surf – scantily clad – to be greeted by James Bond, as Ursula Andress did 40 years earlier.

In late 2003, Berry starred in the psychological thriller Gothika opposite Charles S Dutton, which was the first film that she “carried”.Her next lead role was in the film Catwoman, for which she was awarded a “worst actress” Razzie award in 2005, which she actually accepted in person with a sense of humour and recognition that “to be at the top, you must experience the rock bottom”.