Background and career
Halle Maria Berry (born Maria Halle Berry; August 14, 1966) is an American actress. She began her career as a model and beauty contestant, becoming Miss Ohio USA in 1986, finishing as first runner-up at Miss USA 1986, and placing sixth at Miss World 1986. Her early film roles include Boomerang (1992), The Flintstones (1994) and Bulworth (1998). She produced and starred in the television film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999), for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of a struggling widow in the romantic drama Monster's Ball (2001). She played Storm in the X-Men film series (2000–2014), a villain in Swordfish (2001), the Bond girl Jinx in Die Another Day (2002), a psychiatrist in Gothika (2003), and Catwoman in Catwoman (2004). She also appeared in Perfect Stranger (2007), Cloud Atlas (2012) and The Call (2013), Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019).
Berry produced the television film Lackawanna Blues (2005), and subsequently produced several projects in which she also performed, including the film Frankie & Alice (2010) and the CBS science fiction series Extant (2014–2015). In 2014, Berry launched the production company 606 Films. In 2020, she made her directorial debut with the Netflix drama Bruised. She has been a Revlon spokesmodel since 1996. She was formerly married to baseball player David Justice, singer-songwriter Eric Benét, and actor Olivier Martinez. Berry shares one child with Martinez and another with her former partner Gabriel Aubry.
Maria Halle Berry was born on August 14, 1966 in Cleveland, Ohio. Her mother is Judith Ann (née Hawkins), a first generation American whose own mother was from Liverpool. Her father is Jerome Jesse Berry, an African-American man who died in 2003. Berry's mother worked as a psychiatric nurse, while her father worked in the same hospital as an attendant in the psychiatric ward. He later became a bus driver. Berry's parents divorced when she was four years old, and she and her older sister were raised exclusively by their mother. Berry's middle name came from Halle's Department Store, a Cleveland landmark at the time. Berry's name was legally changed to Halle Maria Berry when she was five.
How Halle Berry makes money
In 2014, Berry launched the production company 606 Films. Some people attributed her change of heart to a substantial increase in the amount Warner Bros. offered her; she was reportedly paid an additional $500,000 for the short scene.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (2026-10-19), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
