Halle Berry was born on August 14, 1968 in Cleveland, Ohio to African American father Jerome Berry, a former hospital attendant, and Caucasian mother Judith Berry, a retired psychiatric nurse. Halle also has an older sister named Heidi. Halle's parents divorced when she was 4 years old. She was then raised by her mom. An active teenager, Halle enjoyed being high school cheerleader while also juggling duties in the honor society, editor of the school paper, and class president. Her senior year she was also crowned prom queen. Halle first came into the spotlight at 17 years old when she won the Miss Teen All-American Pageant, representing the state of Ohio in 1985 and a year later in 1986 when she was the first runner-up in the Miss USA Pageant. After participating in the pageant, Halle became a model. It would eventually lead to her first weekly TV series, 1989's "Living Dolls", where she soon gained a reputation for her onset tenacity, preferring to "live" her roles and remaining in character even when the cameras stopped rolling. It paid off though when she reportedly refused to bathe for several days before starting work on her role as a crack addict in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever because the role provided her big screen breakthrough. The following year, she was cast as Eddie Murphy's love interest in Boomerang, one of the few times that Murphy was evenly matched on screen. In 1994, Berry gained a youthful following for her performance as sexy secretary Sharon Stone in The Flintstones. She next had a highly publicized costarring role with Jessica Lange in the adoption drama Losing Isaiah). Though the movie received mixed reviews, Berry didn't let that slow her down, and continued down her path to superstardom. In 1998, she received critical success when she starred as a street smart young woman who takes up with a struggling politician in Warren Beatty's Bulworth. The following year she won even greater acclaim for her role as actress Dorothy Dandridge in made-for-cable's Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, for which she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Movie/Mini-Series. When researching for her role of Dorothy Dandridge, she discovered that she and Dorothy were both born in the same Cleveland, Ohio hospital. In 2000, she received box office success in X-Men in which she played Storm, a mutant who has the ability to control the weather. While enjoying the spotlight at last, Halle became a spokeswoman for Revlon cosmetics. She continued entering the spotlight when it was rumored that she was paid additionally to her $2.5 million salary to bare her breasts in Swordfish. That same year, she took on her most personal role in Monster's Ball, for which she earned an Oscar for her performance. Halle holds the record as being the first African American actress to win the Oscar for Best Actress.

- IMDB