Kerry Washington’s Second Act

“That was a turning point.”

In September of 2023, Kerry Washington published her memoir, Thicker Than Water, in which she revealed that her dad, Earl Washington, who had raised her all her life along with her mother Valerie, is not, in fact, her biological father.

“My dad was like, ‘This will kill me’—not even [me] writing the book, but [me] taking a DNA test, he felt, was going to kill him. So it suddenly became clear that taking a journey of self-discovery where I would commit to pouring as much creative courage and interest into myself as a character as I had to all these other characters throughout my life, that was going to be a threat and a challenge to the script that had been handed to me at birth,” Washington tells ESSENCE. “It was very disruptive to our family life and the story that we were telling about who we were in the world.”

Embarking on that journey “cost me my sense of self,” admits the actress, who learned she’d been conceived via a sperm donor. Yet, now, more than three years and a host of group family therapy sessions later, things have changed. “I daily return to a sense of self that is much deeper and more grounded,” she says.

“When I say the era that I’m in is more about introspection and having more courage, about being curious about my internal being, it comes out of that experience,” adds Washington of her current outlook. “I had to do so much reckoning with myself and my history and my family; being on the other side of that is really emboldening.”

That viewpoint is evident in the latest work of the Black Women in Hollywood (BWIH) honoree. She’s been super busy: from joining the ensemble of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out mystery sequel, Wake Up Dead Man, and the forthcoming crime thriller Animals, written and directed by Ben Affleck, to taking a turn in Imperfect Women, the Apple TV adaptation of Araminta Hall’s novel of the same name, set to debut March 18. In the latter, Washington plays Eleanor, a member of the trio of gal pals, which includes co-stars Elisabeth Moss and Kate Mara, who’s single, successful and, above all, seriously flawed—something Washington’s not afraid to be onscreen.

“I’m not a risk-averse artist, and I think that has really afforded me tremendous opportunities. I’m not intimidated by characters or storylines or themes that are controversial,” says Washington. “I’m just pickier now,” she later adds. “I’m pickier about directors, in particular. And part of that is now having become a producer and being part of the experience where I get to choose my directors. Confirmation was the first time that it was my job to hire a director.”

The HBO drama about Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court nomination hearings in which Washington portrayed Anita Hill, the attorney-advisor to Thomas who, in 1991, accused him of sexual harassment, premiered on April 16, 2016. That same year, Washington started her production company, Simpson Street, named after the road her mother grew up on in the Bronx, New York. Focused on storytelling
across film, television and podcasts, among Simpson Street’s standout productions are Netflix’s 2019 Emmy-nominated TV movie adaptation of Christopher Demos-Brown’s Broadway play American Son, Hulu’s 2020 Emmy-nominated miniseries Little Fires Everywhere and Hulu’s comedy-drama UnPrisoned, which was canceled in 2024 after two seasons—all of which Washington starred in. The production company is also behind Raamla Mohamed’s Hulu legal drama Reasonable Doubt, which was renewed for a fourth season in November.

Washington first met Mohamed, 2025’s BWIH Visionary Award winner, when she was a research assistant on season one of the Shonda Rhimes political thriller Scandal, through which the actress became a household name playing the crisis management “fixer” Olivia Pope from 2012 to 2018. “She changed my life,” Washington muses of the character which, at the time, made her the first Black woman to lead a network TV drama in nearly 40 years. “She changed the culture, she changed television history, she changed the way we tell stories on television and who gets to tell them.”

After the ABC series ended, Washington asked Mohamed to join the writers’ room of Little Fires Everywhere. “She really excelled and soared there, so when [Reasonable Doubt] came along, we knew she was ready for her own show and it was really exciting to give her that launching pad,” says Washington, referencing Issa Rae’s popular advice about the importance of networking across rather than focusing on networking up. “[Raamla] did the same for me because as we were developing the pilot and selling the series, she would always say, ‘And Kerry will direct the pilot,’ and I was like, ‘Whatever.’ But she was on set when I started directing Scandal, and then she’s such good friends with Issa so she had seen the work that I was doing on Insecure, and she knows how much I love directing. So, it was really exciting for her to push me, honestly, into directing the pilot for Reasonable Doubt. I’m so glad that I did.”

Simpson Street marked its 10th anniversary with 10 NAACP Image Award nominations this year, including six for Reasonable Doubt, three for the action thriller Shadow Force, on which Washington was an executive producer and had a starring role alongside Omar Sy, and one for season two of the Audible podcast The Prophecy, for which she also serves as EP and voices the character of Dr.
Virginia Edwards. “I look at Kerry like Beyoncé. How Beyoncé can do ‘Crazy in Love’ and then ‘Single Ladies’ and B’Day and you think that she’s proven that this is the best thing she could do, and then she’s like, ‘I’m going to do a country album,’” says Mohamed. “Kerry is like that in a way where she’s always challenging herself to do something different or be better. As an artist, she’s always interested in stretching herself in a way that I think is both inspiring, but also admirable, because for someone like her who has done so much and has achieved a lot, she could just coast.”

Instead, Mohamed adds, “She’s always trying to show up and be a better version of herself, not just onscreen, but also in person…the person that you want Kerry to be is the person she is.”

Washington’s reach extends well beyond Hollywood, with the entertainer partnering with the Social Impact Fund to launch the KW Foundation in 2020 to encourage civic engagement around social issues. That includes personally canvassing in cities throughout the country to register citizens to vote during elections. “I’ve said this before, but I don’t speak out as a celebrity,” says Washington. “It’s every single American’s responsibility to participate in our democracy, which is just a fancy word for a government by the people. If the people are silent, there’s no responsible government.”

Whether her political activism has cost her brand deals or opportunities in front of or behind the camera, Washington isn’t sure nor does she care. “I once heard somebody say that the most racist thing that’s been done to you, you’ll never know about because you weren’t even in the room,” she says. “I’m sure that it’s had an impact…but it’s never happened thus far that that would affect my choice to use my voice and be an American.”

Washington’s got a full slate of projects on deck for 2026, following the debut of Imperfect Women, including a five-woman production of Whoopi Goldberg’s acclaimed 1983 one-woman show set to debut at Lincoln Center this summer. “It’s going to take five of us to do what she did because, first of all, she deserves that. She deserves to be honored by more than just me,” says Washington. “But also, it speaks to the complexity of what she did, that it’s going to take five of us to tell a story that she was able to tell as one woman, and we’re all going to work together to do it.”

She’s also developing Onyx Collective’s Desperate Housewives spin-off Wisteria Lane, and the previously announced Audible series Between Me and You with Jurnee Smollett set for release later this year. Netflix also recently announced she’ll star in and executive-produce director Jaume Collet-Serra’s next film, An Innocent Girl.

When Washington was first chosen to be honored at Black Women in Hollywood in 2012, she said in her cover story that it was “a really special time to be a woman of color in this business,” adding, “the landscape of who has the power is changing. We are in more influential positions and are able to have a say in the stories that are told.” Fourteen years later, not only has she borne witness to the truth of those words, but she’s also become living proof.

“As jaded as I can be about how hard the business remains, and as realistic as I can be about how difficult it is to still win in this business and in the world as a Black woman, I also know that we didn’t wait another 40 years. There have been so many Black women, whether it’s Viola [Davis] or Taraji [P. Henson], and women of color with Priyanka [Chopra] after that. It no longer became a risk to put a woman of color as the face of a network television show. It became a mandate, and every network wanted their All Rise or their How to Get Away with Murder so that I’m proud of, and I’m grateful, because I didn’t do that,” says Washington. “It was audiences that did that…they created a groundswell that made [Scandal] undeniable. And that’s what changed the opportunities that were
out there and transformed the kinds of stories that we tell and who gets to tell
them.

“I’m not under any illusion that the business is now easy for anybody,” Washington adds. “But I was able to have a show, and Viola was able to have a show, and Taraji was able to have a show, and Priyanka was able to have a show, and we all have production companies now. We all are creating content and
material for other artists and creatives beyond just us.”

PRODUCTION CREDITS

PHOTOGRAPHED BY PEACE BUREAU
STYLED BY WAYMAN & MICAH FOR THE ONLY AGENCY
HAIR: MILES JEFFRIES
MAKEUP: KEITA MOORE
NAILS: SREYNIN PENG
SET DESIGN: YARA KAMALI
SET ASSISTANT: CIERA MCGREW & JEAN PAUL DANIELS
LIGHTING TECHNICIAN: NATE STURLEY
DIGITAL TECHNICIAN: FERNANDO MATAMOROS
PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANTS: FERNANDO MATAMOROS
PRODUCTION: PEACE BUREAU
PRODUCTION MANAGER: NIA JEAN-RAYMOND
PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS: CIERA MCGREW & JEAN PAUL DANIELS
POST PRODUCTION: SAMANTHA NANDEZ
LOCATION: DUST STUDIOS, LA
SPECIAL THANKS:
ESSENCE, Visuals Director, Breanna Hall
ESSENCE, Art Director, Isaiah Stewart