Age: 36
female
Danielle Brooks is an American actress whose work spans television, film, and Broadway. She first gained widespread recognition as Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson on Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019), a role that became one of the series’ emotional centers and established her as a major presence on television. She later reached a broader mainstream audience starring as Leota Adebayo in James Gunn’s HBO series Peacemaker, where her performance played a central role in the show’s balance of action, satire, and character-driven storytelling. The series marked a high-profile expansion of her work into genre television tied to DC Comics. Brooks made her Broadway debut in 2015 as Sofia in the revival of The Color Purple, earning a Tony Award nomination and winning a Grammy Award with the cast. She reprised the role in the 2023 film adaptation, a performance that brought her nominations from the Academy Awards, BAFTA, and Golden Globes, solidifying her transition into major film roles. Alongside acting, Brooks has taken on producing and hosting work. She portrayed Mahalia Jackson in the television biopic Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia (2021), serving as an executive producer and earning a Primetime Emmy nomination. She later hosted Netflix’s Instant Dream Home, receiving a Daytime Emmy nomination for her work as a program host. Brooks has continued to balance screen and stage appearances, returning to Broadway in August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson and starring in the fantasy adventure comedy A Minecraft Movie, further expanding her range across genres.
Danielle Brooks
Naomi
for Naomi in Killers of a Certain Age
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Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that's their secret weapon. They've spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're sixty years old, four women friends can't just retire - it's kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller by New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated author Deanna Raybourn. Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills. When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they've been marked for death. Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They're about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman--and a killer--of a certain age.
