Danielle Brooks

Danielle Brooks is an actress and singer best known for her role as Taystee on Orange Is the New Black and her work on Broadway, including The Color Purple and The Piano Lesson. Brooks began acting in church plays and school productions as a child before being accepted into the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts & Humanities. She graduated from The Juilliard School in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in drama.

Brooks first landed roles on stage, appearing in a handful of productions at the Shakespeare Theater Company before making her professional acting debut. She landed her breakout role as Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black in 2013, appearing in all seven seasons.

The actress later went on to appear on shows such as Peacemaker and in films like All The Little Things We Kill (2019). She has also lent her voice to works such as The Angry Birds Movie (2016) as well as animated TV series Close Enough and Karma’s World.

On stage, she earned a Tony Award nomination for her performance as Sofia in the 2015 Broadway revival of The Color Purple. In 2023, she reprised the role in the film adaptation The Color Purple, which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

In 2025, she starred in A Minecraft Movie alongside Jack Black.

The actress married real estate agent Dennis Gelin in 2022. The couple share daughter Freeya, who they welcomed in 2019.