Regina King won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance for "If Beale Street Could Talk". Image Source: DNA India 

Regina Rene King is an African-American actress and director who, with her exceptional talent, has been rewarded with several accolades that include the Academy Award, the Golden Globe, and the Primetime Emmy Awards, and has managed to make it onto the list of one of the most influential people in the world.

Regina rose to prominence as Brenda Jenkins in the television series "227," which she starred in from 1985 until 1990. Regina King has portrayed a variety of parts that demonstrate her depth and versatility in genres such as drama, action, and humor, thanks to her in-depth understanding of characters. She has appeared in John Singleton's films such as "Boys n the Hood," "Poetic Justice," and "Higher Learning" (1995), as well as the comedy "Friday" (1995). King's appearance as the wife of a football star (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) in the famous film "Jerry Maguire" (1996) garnered her greater attention, leading to roles in "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" and "Enemy of the State".

Regina King was cast in the short-lived sitcom Leap of Faith after playing alongside Chris Rock in "Down to Earth" (2002). She returned to film, starring in the comedy "Legally Blonde 2" (2003) and "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous" (2005), and receiving critical acclaim for her portrayal of Ray Charles' backup singer and lover in the biopic "Ray Charles" (2004). Before being cast in the police drama "Southland", King portrayed a part in season six (2007) of the TV series 24. She also has recurring parts in 2014's "Shameless" and 2015's and 2017's "The Leftovers".

Regina King in "If Beale Street Could Talk". Image Source: Vanity Fair

She portrayed a new character in each story arc in the anthology series American Crime (2015–17), for which she won two Emmy Awards (2015 and 2016). Her role as a heartbroken mother in the miniseries Seven Seconds (2018), about an African American youngster who is inadvertently run over by a white police officer who tries to cover up the occurrence, earned her a third Emmy nomination.

In Barry Jenkins's If Beale Street Could Talk (2018), adapted to James Baldwin's 1974 novel, King was dazzling and magnificent in the character of Tish's mother. Regina King won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. She earned her fourth Emmy Award for her role in the TV miniseries Watchmen in 2019. From 2013, when she directed the TV movie Let the Church Say Amen, King has also worked behind the camera. Over the next few years, she directed episodes of several TV shows, as well as her critically acclaimed feature film debut, One Night in Miami (2020).

Adding another honor to her list of accolades, Regina King imprinted her hands and feet at the forecourt of Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre among fellow industry titans and legends on October 28th, 2021. Regina wore a powdery pink pantsuit for the ceremony and was joined by her friend Ava DuVernay, her sister Reina King, and their mother, Gloria King.

Regina King imprinted her hands and feet at the forecourt of Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre. Image Source: Black Film

The 50-year-old actress got emotional during the ceremony as Ava DuVernay gave a speech in her honor appreciating her legacy and making her sob as she said, "It is a sight to see the force of your connection and your care and creativity and desire for community is a marvel, and it's been a pleasure to be in your orbit. Your talent knows no bounds."

The Oscar-winning actress did a little dance as she stood barefoot in the wet cement and etched, "No place like home" under her name, which is the opening of the theme song for her first break in the industry, "227". During the ceremony, she said, "This means so much. Many people will see this and think it comes from "The Wizard of Oz," but it comes from my beginning in 227, where the theme began with "no place like home." There is no time limit or stale date for achieving your goals. If you love what you do, you should never stop working at it. "

In her interaction with Variety, Regina King said, "I'm born and bred in LA. When we got to see a film at the Chinese Theatre, it was always an event because we could put our hands and feet on the prints of the movie stars. I always wondered if it was hard to decide what shoes to wear. Who would have thought I would answer my question 40 years later? Yep! It is difficult to decide. I'm struggling between a pump and a sneaker right now". 

Regina King's imprint. Image Source: UAE News 

The cementing ceremony comes amid the celebrations for Regina King’s latest project, which is Jeymes Samuel’s outlaw revenge saga, "The Harder They Fall", in which she portrays a treacherous Trudy Smith. Gunfights, bank heists, and train robberies might be a new setting for King, but tackling impactful and imposing characters is very much her forte.

The actress later explained to Access Hollywood that the moment felt surreal to her, as she had permanently fixed herself at the theater. Regina King also addressed the recent fatal accident on the sets of "Rust" by stating, "I just hope people don't look at that moment as a reflection of how we handle safety as a whole as an industry ... I've never felt unsafe on set before ... and that was a really unfortunate situation that could have been avoided."

Regina King recently joined the superhero craze in Hollywood, establishing herself as Angela Abar/Sister Night in HBO's Watchmen and directing and producing the movie adaptation of Image Comics' Bitter Root. Watchmen received widespread critical acclaim for its storytelling and visuals, as well as for highlighting the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. "There are people who believe that this world is fair and good. It’s all lollipops and rainbows," King Abar says in the series. "We don’t do lollipops and rainbows. We know those are pretty colors that just hide what the world is. Black and white."

Stars have pressed their hands, footprints, and other ephemera into a block of wet cement, along with their autograph, since the theater opened in 1927. Visitors to the attraction have surely walked in the footsteps of Judy Garland, Mary Pickford, Tom Hanks, the Harry Potter cast, and others.