Born Phyllis Ada Driver in Lima, Ohio. Growing up with old parents (her father was 55, and her mother was 35 when she was born), she was exposed to death from a young age. Later she said that this had led her to appreciate life and use comedy as a therapy method. After graduating from Lima’s Central High School, she studied piano at the Sherwood Music Conservatory of Columbia College Chicago and then history, literature, philosophy, and psychology at Bluffton College. In Bluffton, she met Sherwood Diller, and the couple eloped in 1939. After the wedding, she dropped out of school, became a housewife, and cared for their five children. In 1952, after the family moved to Alameda, CA, Diller began to work at KROW radio in Oakland, CA. That same year, she filmed a series of 15-minute segments for the Bay Area TV station titled Phyllis Dillis, the Homely Friendmaker, offering absurd advice to homemakers. In 1955, at 37, she worked as a vocalist for a music-review TV show called Pop Club. The hosts, Don Sherwood and Willard Anderson, found her hilarious and invited her to the show. Following her success, she debuted as a stand-up comedian at San Francisco’s The Purple Onion nightclub. Diller’s perfect timing, cackling laugh, and pin-point one-liners about suburban life captivated the audience, and the show ran for almost two years. With no female comedians as role models in a male-dominated industry, Diller’s first performances draw materials from her experiences as a housewife who reads advice columns. Over time, she developed a persona, presenting a caricaturist form of femininity. With baggy dresses, clownish hairstyles, and a fake cigarette, she ridiculed her lack of sex appeal and spoke about looks, ineptitude as a mother, and her made-up husband. Later, she also joked about her love of plastic surgery. In 1958, at 41, Diller made her first national television appearance on Groucho Marx’s show You Bet Your Life. Afterward, she got invited to various talk shows, including the Tonight Show and The Ed Sullivan Show, bringing her national fame; her performances were fully booked throughout the US, and she released multiple comedy albums. By the early 1960s, she began to perform alongside her mentor Bob Hope, appearing in more than 20 of his TV specials and working with him on several films, including Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! Eight on the Lam, and The Private Navy of Sgt. O’Farrell. By then, Diller became a household name, regularly appearing on numerous television programs. She also furthered her acting career, performing in over a dozen movies and as a dubbing artist, utilizing her signature voice to portray a wide range of characters, from the Monster’s Mate in the 1967 film Mad Monster Party to the Queen in the 1998 animation A Bug’s Life. In 1966, 49 years old Diller received her own TV show, The Pruitts of Southampton, better known as The Phyllis Diller Show. There, she played a wacky widow who struggles to maintain an appearance of wealth despite being heavily in debt. During the next three decades, Diller continued to appear in many TV shows and to voice act in several series, including Robot Chicken, Family Guy, Cow and Chicken, Hey Arnold!, The Powerpuff Girls and Animaniacs. She was also an accomplished writer, publishing her first book, Phyllis Diller’s Housekeeping Hints, in 1966 and her last, The Joys of Aging & How to Avoid Them, in 1981. By the end of the 1990s, while in her 80s, her health began to decline, and in 2002 she retired from stand-up. She continued to make TV appearances and was featured in talk shows and comedy specials such as The Aristocrats. Diller died at 95, after a 50-year-long career in which she published four books and appeared in 365 films and dozens of TV shows. As one of the first solo female comedians in the US, she inspired generations of stand-up comedians, such as Joan Rivers, Lily Tomlin, Ellen DeGeneres, and Margaret Cho. Read more...

Viola Davis was born in St. Matthews, South Carolina, and grew up in Central Falls, Rhode Island. The family often struggled to survive because her parents’ incomes were insufficient. She attended Central Falls High School, where she participated in school productions and theatre competitions. These performances earned her a scholarship at the Young People’s School for the Performing Arts in West Warwick, Rhode Island. She continued studying theater at Rhode Island College and furthered her education at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City. In 1992, while still in school, she starred in her first off-Broadway production, As You Like It, by William Shakespeare. Four years later, at 31, she made her Broadway debut in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, for which she earned her first Tony Award nomination. She continued to perform in various Broadway productions and had television guest appearances before landing the role of Nurse Lynnette Peeler in the TV drama City of Angels in 2000. A year after, Davis returned to Broadway to play Tonya in King Hedley II. For her portrayal of the married woman who advocates for her right to an abortion, she won her first Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. During the early 2000s, she played several small roles in films, mainly Steven Soderbergh’s, including Out of Sight, Solaris, and Traffic. In 2010, she performed in her third August Wilson Broadway play, Fences, which earned her second Tony Award, and made her the second African-American to win the Tony for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play. Later, Davis played in the movie adaptation of the play, for which she won several more awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. By then, Davis had become an acclaimed actress, playing roles in various TV shows and films, including The Help, Beautiful Creatures, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby. In 2014, she got her first leading TV role as Annalise Keating in Shonda Rhimes’ How to Get Away with Murder. This character not only made her a household name but also gained her an Emmy award, becoming the first African-American to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Over time, Davis took on various positions behind the camera. With her husband, in 2011, she established a production company named JuVee Production. By 2022 they have released more than a dozen feature films, documentaries, and TV shows, including the political docuseries Two-Sides which explores police brutality towards the African-American community, Emanuel about the mass shooting at the Emanuel AME Church, and The Woman King about the warrior leader of the kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th century. Davis uses her fame and fortune to support and promote causes close to her heart. She donated funds for the public library in her hometown of Central Falls, Rhode Island, and for the theater program of her alma mater Central Falls High School; she also collaborates with the Hunger Is, a program for eradicating childhood hunger in the US. Davis in known for her strong voice, which she often uses to inspire and empower black women and men, communities struggling with poverty, and race and gender equality. Read more...

Ava Marie DuVernay was born and raised in California. She studied English literature and African-American studies at the University of California. While at college, DuVernay was interested in broadcast journalism and interned for CBS News during the O.J. Simpson trial. Following been assigned to look through the trash of the jury, DuVernay decided to change her career path and get into public relations. After receiving her Bachelor’s degree, she began to work as a junior publicist at several production studios and PR agencies. In 1999, when she is 27 years old, she opened her PR firm, The DuVernay Agency, working on campaigns for films such as Shrek 2, Dreamgirls, and Collateral. At the time, she also launched numerous lifestyle and promotional networks, including the Urban Beauty Collective for African-American beauty salons and barbershops and HelloBeautiful for millennial women of color. As a PR agent, DuVernay frequently visited film sets, observing filmmakers on the job, figuring that she can be one as well. She bought books on the art of screenwriting, and in 2003 she began to work on her first script. In the following year, at the age of 32, DuVernay directed her first short film, Saturday Night Life, based on her mother’s experiences in a discount grocery store. At 38, DuVernay released her first narrative feature, I Will Follow, about a woman who losses her aunt to cancer. The film was the official selection of several film festivals, including the American Film Institute Fest and the Chicago International Film Festival. A year later, DuVernay’s film Middle of Nowhere premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won Best direction, making her the first African-American woman to receive the award. In the following years, she continued creating movies and TV series, winning awards as the first African-American woman. In 2018, she made history again by becoming the first woman of color to direct a live-action film with a budget higher than $100 million in the movie A Wrinkle in Time, featuring Oprah Winfrey. Between one feature film to another, DuVernay directed many TV documentary films, music videos, and commercials. She also founded the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement (AFFRM) to support films made by black artists, later rebranded as ARRAY, expanding the movement’s mission to women artists. She also co-founded the Evolve Entertainment Fund, promoting inclusion and providing opportunities for under-served communities in the entertainment industry. Read more...

Born Edith Claire Posener in San Bernardino, California. Her parents got divorced, and she grew up in Searchlight, Nevada, and Los Angeles, California. Head studied French at the University of California at Berkeley and then romance languages at Stanford University. At 23, she worked as a French teacher at the Hollywood School for Girls. To earn a higher salary, she took another position at the school as an art teacher. Having no formal education in arts, she took evening drawing lessons at the Chouinard Art College and Otis Art Institute. In 1923, at the age of 26, she married Charles Head, and though the marriage did not last long, she kept using Head as her surname. At 27, Head was hired by Paramount Pictures as a sketch artist for silent films. Her first design appeared in 1925 in the movie The Wanderer. She worked her way up, and within a few years, she became one of the leading costume designers in Hollywood. In 1938, at the age of 41, Head was appointed chief designer at Paramount pictures, becoming the first woman to head the design department of a major studio. During the 1940s, Head gained public attention after designing Ginger Rogers’s top mink-lined gown in the film Lady in the Dark. In 1950, after winning her first Academy Award for The Heiress, Head became the most wanted and successful custom designer in Hollywood. Head was the favorite designer of many leading actresses, such as Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn, and the first pick for designing the costumes for the biggest movies of the era, including Samson and Delilah, All About Eve, and Sabrina. In 1967, when she is 70 years old, Head left Paramount for Universal Studios. There, she won her first Academy Award for outfitting male stars in the film The Sting. She began designing costumes for TV productions, such as Bewitched and the mini-series Little Women. In the late 1970s, she designed the women’s uniform for the United States Coast Guard, for which she received the Meritorious Public Service Award. At the age of 83, Head worked on her last film project, the comedy, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. She died in the following year, a few days before her 84th birthday. Throughout her career, Head was nominated for 35 Academy Awards, winning 8 times – setting the record for the most honored costume designer in Academy Award history.   Read more...

Born Rachel Meghan Markle in Los Angeles, California. Her mother is African-American, and her father is Caucasian. When she was 6 years old, her parents got divorced. Markle attended Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse and then the all-girl Immaculate Heart High School. At 18, Markle began to study theatre and international studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. In 2002, at 21, after earning her bachelor’s degree, she returned to LA to develop her acting career. As a biracial actress, Markle had difficulties getting roles, not being black enough for black roles and not white enough for white ones. To support herself financially, she taught bookbinding and worked as a calligrapher. Markel’s first TV appearance was as a nurse in the soap opera General Hospital. Then she landed guest roles in various TV shows, such as 90210, CSI: NY, and CSI: Miami, as well as leading roles in movies, such as Random Encounters and Anti-Social. In 2011, at the age of 30, Markel had her big break in the TV show Suits, playing the role of Rachel Zane. At 33, Markle founded a lifestyle blog called The Tig, in which she wrote about fashion, food, traveling, beauty, and highlighting inspirational women. In 2016, at 35, Markle was appointed global ambassador for World Vision Canada. In this role, she traveled to Rwanda, promoting the Clean Water Campaign, and India, advocating for raising awareness for women’s issues, and debunking stigmatization regarding menstrual health. In June 2016, Markle was introduced to Prince Harry, a member of the British royal family, by a mutual friend, and soon they became a couple and got engaged in the following year. As a future member of the British royal family, Markle retired from acting and closed her blog. The wedding took place on May 19, 2018, at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. Afterward, Markle was given the title Duchess of Sussex and took on various royal duties. She served as vice president of The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust and as the patron of numerous charities and organizations, including London’s National Theatre, The Royal Foundation, and the Association of Commonwealth Universities. Using her fashionista status, Markle collaborated with British stores and fashion houses to launch the Smart Set capsule collection to raise money for the Smart Works charity. Markle and Prince Harry also established the Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, which later was renamed Archewell Inc. On May 6, 2019, at the age of 38, Markle gave birth to her first son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, the 7th in line of succession to the British throne. In January 2020, after years of suffering public pressure, endless tabloid rumors, and scrutinizing, in addition to race issues raised by the royal members about her and her son, and with no support or protection from the crown, Markle and Prince Harry announced of their retirement from their royal duties and of their plan to become financially independent. Within six months, they settled in LA, where they continue to support and advocate for charities and organizations that promote social issues, such as mental health, women’s rights, animal welfare, and education access. Read more...

Born as Harriet Wood in New Orleans, Louisiana, but grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where her father, a Spanish merchant, has established a Trading Post with Native Americans. Growing up, she used to ride horses and shoot shotguns while fantasying about becoming an actress. At 18, she moved to NYC to pursue her dream and took the stage name Pauline Cushman. She met Charles Dickinson, and in 1853 they got married and relocated to Cleveland, Ohio. At the onset of the Civil War, her husband enlisted in the Union Army as a musician but soon fell ill with dysentery and passed away a few months later. Cushman, now a widow with two children, wanted to return to the stage. She left her children with her in-laws and moved to Louisville, Kentucky, which at the time was a Union state, full of Confederate sympathizers. In April 1863, while preparing to perform in the play The Seven Sisters, she was approached by two Confederate officers who offered her $350 for toasting the Confederate President during the play, instead of President Lincoln. Hesitated, Cushman turned to the Union authorities, who told her to accept the proposition, and so she did. She was immediately fired from the show but was offered a new job – a spy for the Union Army. As a spy, Cushman utilized her acting skills and posed as a Confederate sympathizer. Sometimes dresses as a man and sometimes as a woman, she was able to befriend military commanders and gather information. Pretending to be a Southern woman in a boarding house, she managed to stop the boarding house’s mistress from poisoning Union soldiers, and while dressed as a man, she joined a Southern woman who brought confident documents to the south and had the Union to confiscate her papers. Cushman’s biggest mission was in 1864 when she entered a Confederate camp in Tennessee under the appearance that she is searching for her missing brother. She managed to steal drawings of fortification plans but was caught by Confederate soldiers. Though Cushman escaped captivity, she was captured and brought to trial before a military court. She was sentenced to hang, but her execution was delayed after becoming sick or pretending to be one. Eventually, by the time she got better, the Union had invaded the area, and she was spared. After that incident, Cushman received public attention as well as recognition from General Garfield and President Lincoln. She was awarded the rank of brevet major and was honored as “Major of Calvary.” She received a military uniform, which she used in her lectures and performing tours after the war. Over time, the public became exhausted hearing about war stories, and Cushman’s popularity had declined. She moved to San Francisco, and in 1872 she got married, but her husband passed away in the following year. A widow for the second time, Cushman moved to Arizona, where she met her third husband, Jeremiah Fryer. They ran together a hotel for ten years, but their marriage did not survive the death of their daughter, and they separated in 1890. Cushman, then living in poverty, returned to San Francisco and spent her last years working as a charwoman and seamstress. At the time, she suffered from rheumatism and arthritis and became addicted to pain medications. At the age of 60, Cushman had died from a morphine overdose. With her death, her Civil War honors and fame were recalled, and she was buried with full military honors. Read more...

Niki Caro was born in Wellington, New Zealand. From a young age, she was interested in art, and after graduating from Diocesan School for Girls, she attended the Elam School of Fine Arts, where she studied sculpture. During school, she realized that her true passion is cinema, and chanced her academic path. After receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, she continued her studies at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, earning her Postgraduate Diploma in Film when she is 22 years old. Her theoretic knowledge wasn’t enough to be a director, and with no formal training, she mastered the filed by reading narrative film books and writing scripts. She began directing TV commercials, and in 1992 she got her breakthrough when she was signed to write and direct for the television series “Another Country.” She began working on short films, which were accepted in film festivals all over the world. In 1994, her short film “Sure to Rise” was nominated for the Golden Palm Award at Cannes. Four years later, she released her first feature film, “Memory & Desire.” Though the film did not succeed at the box office, it was chosen for Critics’ Week at Cannes and won the best new film at the New Zealand Film Awards. The next movie Caro wrote and direct was “Whale Rider,” in which she tells the story of a Māori girl who fights for her right to be a candidate for tribal chief. The film earned more than $41 million worldwide and was nominated for over 50 awards. Afterward, Caro gained world recognition and was asked to direct her first Hollywood feature – North Country, for which two of the actresses, Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand, were nominated for Academy Awards. Caro kept on directing films, both in New Zealand and in the US, featuring A list actors, such as Kevin Costner, Keisha Castle-Hughes, and Chloë Sevigny, and screening them in the most prestigious film festivals. In 2017, she directed the film “The Zookeeper’s Wife,” depicting the true story of the Polish couple, who hide and saved hundreds of Jews during WW2. For this adaptation, Caro won the Truly Moving Picture Award at the Heartland Film Festival. In that same year, she was elected to direct Disney’s live-action adaptation of “Mulan,” becoming the second woman and second New Zealander to direct a Disney film in a budget higher than $100 million. In “Mulan,” like in many of her films, Caro explores strong women characters that have to prove their strength and courage facing the society they live in. Read more...

Growing up in Los Angles, Dorothy Arzner spent time in her parents’ café in Hollywood, a gathering place for many silent film stars and directors. After graduating from Westlake School for Girls, Arzner started to study medicine at the University of Southern California but quit after two years, deciding it was not her destiny. At 22, a meeting with Lasky William DeMille, the director, and co-founder of Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, led her to explore the different departments of the movie set, deciding she aspired to be a director “because he was the one who told everyone else what to do.” Her first role was as a stenographer, then a synopsis writer. Arzner was promoted from script girl to film editor within a year. At 25, after editing more than 50 films, Paramount Studio asked her to edit the film Blood and Sand, starring Rudolph Valentino. Her work on this film impressed the director James Cruze, who then employed her as the editor of his following four films. Over time, her ambitions to become a director grew, and Paramount assigned her as an assistant director. When Arzner threatened to leave the studio to work for Columbia, Paramount offered her to direct a comedy film. At 30, Arzner debuted her first film – Fashions for Women. After directing three more silent films, she got to direct Paramount’s first talkie film – The Wild Party, making history by being the first woman director of a talking movie. In her films, Arzner examined the patriarchal systems and the expectations imposed upon women. She featured strong female characters and explored female relationships, marriage life, and the balance of power between the sexes. During WW2, Arzner left Hollywood and began to direct training films for the Women’s Army Corps. Afterward, she worked on several documentary films and commercials and as a consultant at Pepsi. In 1950, Arzner founded the filmmaking program at the Pasadena Playhouse and was its first teacher. She also produced theater plays and starred in a radio program. At 64, Arzner became a staff member of the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television and taught there for four years. In her last years, she left LA and moved to the desert, where she lived until she passed away at 82. Throughout her career, Arzner directed twenty films; to this day, she is the female director with the largest body of work in Hollywood. Read more...

Born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, she moved several times in her childhood. Her most influential time was in Stamps, Arkansas with her grandmother, whom she thought was the god but kept it as a secret. The death of the grandmother gave her the courage to live life to the fullest. She gave birth to her only son as she finished high school at 17, and raised him alone, while working in a range of jobs, as a dancer in night clubs and a cook. Attracted by the uniforms, she overcame racial barriers, and in 1944 became the first black female cable car conductor of San Francisco. Angelou has developed a dynamic career as a singer, dancer (even trained with Martha Graham) and actress, touring Europe at the age of 27, editing a magazine in Egypt at 33, and teaching in Ghana at 35. It is only at 40 that she wrote her first book, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” that included the description of being raped in childhood. The book became both popular and controversial, selling more than a million copies and translated into 17 languages. It was followed by more than 30 books, including six more volumes of her autobiography, poetry, cookbooks, and children’s books. She continued her diverse career as an actor, director, educator, and essayist, and also became a dominant political voice for the civil rights movement, working with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. In her lifetime she was awarded more than 50 honorary degrees.   Dive deeper into the inspiring story of Maya Angelou with our fun and engaging printable worksheet! Available now on Etsy and Teachers Pay Teachers. Read more...

Isadora Duncan was an avant-garde dancer with a novel freestyle which became today’s modern dance, who lived an extraordinary life in all aspects. She was born in 1887 in San Francisco, California, to a family with great appreciation and love of the arts. Her siblings became artists as well. After her parents got divorced, her mother moved the family to Oakland and worked as a seamstress and piano teacher to support them. Since the family was very poor, Duncan began teaching dance lessons to children in the neighborhood throughout her teenage years. Her unique style was already evident in those early years teaching improvisation and freestyle dance. At 19, she started her career as a professional dancer but quickly found that her vision of the art of dance collided with the strict rules of formal dance. From her point of view, the movements of the classical ballet were unnatural, with their exact, pre-written, none fluid, rigid moves. That’s in addition to the uncomfortable corsets and point shoes which were even less natural to the body and its nature. In her vision, each step and movement must be born from the other in an organic succession. Her dancing defined the force of progress, change, abstraction and liberation. The concept of the natural movement of the body was the main key of her unique style, a concept she was willing to take to the edge, and which earned her the fortune and fame she is remembered for to this day. In 1898 she moved to London, where she began performing privately for the wealthy. Her earnings enabled her to rent a studio and develop a grander stage performance. From London, she moved to Paris, and there she attended the Louvre and the Exposition Universelle of 1900. Those experiences had inspired her greatly. The Louvre for its ancient Greek art exposition was a milestone in her vision, and the loosened Greek robe and bare feet became her most identifiable trademark and affected the future of dance. From there on Duncan traveled across Europe and the Americas, performing in her innovative style and developing its technique. Though she became popular and successful, she sought to accomplish her true mission to educate the young. In 1904 she opened her first school in Berlin, and there she taught her vision of dance to young women. Six of her students became the “Isadorables” dance group and continued her legacy. She also adopted them, and they all took her last name. In 1914, Duncan returned to the US and established a school in NYC. She died in 1927 in Nice, France in a strange accident when her scarf became entangled around the open-spoke wheels and rear axle, pulling her from the open car and breaking her neck. Read more...