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Oprah Winfrey's Biography

Producer/Actress

Through her company’s film division, Harpo Films, she has produced projects based on classic and contemporary literature that have garnered the highest industry honors for quality acting and production. Telefilms under the “Oprah Winfrey Presents” banner have included the award-winning Tuesdays With Morrie, based on the best-selling novel by Mitch Albom and starring Academy Award®-winner Jack Lemmon and Emmy Award®-winner Hank Azaria; Their Eyes Were Watching God, based on the Zora Neale Hurston novel and starring Academy Award®-winner Halle Berry; and Mitch Albom’s For One More Day, based on his best-selling novel and starring Emmy Award®-winner Michael Imperioli and Academy Award®-winner Ellen Burstyn.

In 1998, Harpo Films produced the critically acclaimed Beloved, a Touchstone Pictures feature film based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Toni Morrison, which co-starred Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover and was directed by Jonathan Demme. On Christmas Day 2007, co-producers Harpo Films and The Weinstein Company released The Great Debaters, which is directed by Academy Award®-winner Denzel Washington who also stars in the film with Academy Award®-winner Forest Whitaker. The Great Debaters received a Golden Globe® nomination for Best Motion Picture. In fall 2009, Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry will support Lionsgate's distribution of Precious, based on the novel by Sapphire.

Oprah made her acting debut in 1985 as "Sofia" in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple, for which she received both Academy Award® and Golden Globe® nominations.  She also has been lauded for her performances in the made-for-television movies Before Women Had Wings (1997), There Are No Children Here (1993), and The Women of Brewster Place (1989). She also has lent her voice to animated feature films, including Charlotte’s Web (2006), Bee Movie (2007) and The Princess and the Frog (2009).

 

Sources: 
*Nielsen Cassandra Ranking Report - Nov'86 to July '99 and Wrap Sweeps+, Nov '99 to May ‘08. Wtd Avg DMA HH Rtg, Primary Telecasts Only. 
**Nielsen/NPower/P2+ unique viewer average: 1-minute qualifier, L+7, 11/1-11/28/07, 1/31-2/27/08, 4/24-5/21/08, excludes 11/23/07.
 
Last Updated: October 2008