Kimberly Elise Trammel (born April 17, 1967) is an American actress. She made her feature-film debut in Set It Off (1996), and later received critical acclaim for her performance in Beloved (1998).
Elise was born as Kimberly Elise Trammel in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the daughter of Erma Jean (née Johnson), an elementary school teacher, and Marvin Trammel, who owns an executive search firm.[1][2] She has three siblings. She attended The American Film Institute as a Directing Fellow and at the University of Minnesota earned a BA in Mass Communications.[3]
Career
1990s
Elise made her big screen debut in the 1996 crime action film Set It Off (1996) directed by F. Gary Gray, in which she played one of four women who resort to robbing a bank for money. Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah and Vivica A. Fox co-star in film which became a critical and box office success, grossing over $41 million.[4] In 1997 she was cast in the Family Channel original television movie The Ditchdigger's Daughters, based on the Pulitzer-prize nominated and critically acclaimed 1995 memoir The Ditchdigger's Daughters: A Black Family's Astonishing Success Story, written by Yvonne S. Thornton and Jo Coudert. She received critical acclaim for her role in this film,[5] and in 1997, she was recognized as Best Supporting Actress in a Movie or Miniseries at the 19th annual CableACE Awards. Her performance helped her land a role the next year in Beloved alongside Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover, a horror-drama film based on Toni Morrison's 1987 novel of the same name, directed by Jonathan Demme. Despite being a box office bomb, Elise received praise for her performance, and well as Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress and Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture. She also received her first NAACP Image Award nomination.[6]
2000s
In 2000, Elise starred in The Loretta Claiborne Story playing Loretta Claiborne. The movie was aired as a part of The Wonderful World of Disney at ABC in early 2000. She received good reviews for performance as Claiborne.[7] Later that year, she was female lead in Jamie Foxx's movie Bait, the film was a huge financial failure,[8] and received mostly negative reviews from critics.[9] The following year, she starred opposite Gregory Hines in the biographical drama Bojangles. In 2002–2003, she made guest appearances on the UPN comedy series Girlfriends in which she played an HIV-positive woman, and in the Showtime drama Soul Food.
In 2002, Elise starred alongside Denzel Washington in the crime film John Q. It became a box office success, grossing over $100 million.[10] She next had a leading role in the independent drama Woman Thou Art Loosed portraying Michelle, an abused young woman who finally got the help she needed behind bars. This role won her a Black Reel award for Best Actress and well as received Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead nomination. She later starred in the political thriller The Manchurian Candidate, co-starring with Denzel Washington a second time.
Elise was married to Maurice Oldham from 1989 to 2005.[citation needed] The couple had two daughters, born in 1990 and 1998. Not long after their divorce, in 2007, Oldham died from a "massive blood clot".[citation needed] Elise married George McCrary in August 2023.[citation needed]
Elise is vegan and has worked with PETA to promote the lifestyle.[25]
