Biography
Octavia Lenora Spencer (born May 25, 1970) is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards. Spencer made her film debut in the 1996 drama A Time to Kill. Following a decade of brief roles in film and television, her breakthrough came in 2011 when she played a maid in 1960s America in the drama film The Help, which won her the Academy Award for ...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Smurfs
2025
as Asmodius (voice)
When Papa Smurf is mysteriously taken by evil wizards, Razamel and Gargamel, Smurfette leads the Smurfs on a mission into the real world to save him. ...

Tow
2025
as Barb
Based on a true story, this poignant and inspiring underdog drama follows Amanda, an unhoused woman living in her car, who takes on a predatory towing...

Becoming bell hooks
2024
as Self
Explore the life and legacy of Kentucky-born author bell hooks, who wrote nearly 40 books and whose work at the intersection of race, class and gender...

Spirited
2022
as Kimberly
Each Christmas Eve, the Ghost of Christmas Present selects one dark soul to be reformed by a visit from three spirits. But this season, he picked the ...

Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music and Laughter
2022
as Self
The one-night-only celebration honoring the life and legacy of the famed producer features intimate conversations, special performances and surprise r...
The Quest for Sleep
2022
as Narrator
The Quest for Sleep is a documentary that follows real characters whose struggles with sleep threaten to unravel their waking lives.

Encounter
2021
as Hattie Hayes
A decorated Marine goes on a rescue mission to save his two young sons from an unhuman threat. As their journey takes them in increasingly dangerous d...

Thunder Force
2021
as Emily Stanton
In a world where supervillains are commonplace, two estranged childhood best friends reunite after one devises a treatment that gives them powers to p...

Superintelligence
2020
as Octavia Spencer (voice)
When an all-powerful Superintelligence chooses to study the most average person on Earth, Carol Peters, the fate of the world hangs in the balance. As...

Roald Dahl's The Witches
2020
as Grandma
In late 1967, a young orphaned boy goes to live with his loving grandma in the rural Alabama town of Demopolis. As the boy and his grandmother encount...

Onward
2020
as The Manticore (voice)
In a suburban fantasy world, two teenage elf brothers embark on an extraordinary quest to discover if there is still a little magic left out there.

Dolittle
2020
as Dab-Dab (voice)
After losing his wife seven years earlier, the eccentric Dr. John Dolittle, famed doctor and veterinarian of Queen Victoria’s England, hermits himself...

Luce
2019
as Harriet Wilson
A star athlete and top student, Luce's idealized image is challenged by one of his teachers when his unsettling views on political violence come to li...

Ma
2019
as Sue Ann
Sue Ann is a loner who keeps to herself in her quiet Ohio town. One day, she is asked by Maggie, a new teenager in town, to buy some booze for her and...

Ma
2019
Executive Producer
Sue Ann is a loner who keeps to herself in her quiet Ohio town. One day, she is asked by Maggie, a new teenager in town, to buy some booze for her and...

HOMECOMING: A film by Beyoncé
2019
as Self
This intimate, in-depth look at Beyoncé's celebrated 2018 Coachella performance reveals the emotional road from creative concept to cultural movement.

Green Book
2018
Executive Producer
Tony Lip, a bouncer in 1962, is hired to drive pianist Don Shirley on a tour through the Deep South in the days when African Americans, forced to find...

Instant Family
2018
as Karen
When Pete and Ellie decide to start a family, they stumble into the world of foster care adoption. They hope to take in one small child but when they ...

A Kid Like Jake
2018
as Judy
On the eve of the admissions cycle for New York City kindergartens, Alex and Greg Wheeler have high hopes for four-year-old Jake. The director of Jake...

Small Town Crime
2018
as Kelly Banks
Mike Kendall, a disgraced ex-cop, is fighting a losing battle with the bottle. When he finds a woman left for dead at the side of a road, Kendall turn...

Small Town Crime
2018
Executive Producer
Mike Kendall, a disgraced ex-cop, is fighting a losing battle with the bottle. When he finds a woman left for dead at the side of a road, Kendall turn...

The Shape of Water
2017
as Zelda Fuller
An other-worldly story, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962, where a mute janitor working at a lab falls in love with an amphi...

Candid
2017
Executive Producer
In the midst of college application season, Ace struggles with the choice between going off to California to pursue her passion for photography at an ...

Gifted
2017
as Roberta Taylor
Frank, a single man raising his child prodigy niece Mary, is drawn into a custody battle with his mother.

Car Dogs
2017
as Mrs. Barrett
Malcolm is a brilliant, callous businessman who is a vicious, overbearing father. Mark is the sales manager at Chamberlain Auto, the dealership that p...

The Shack
2017
as Papa / Elouisa
A grieving man receives a mysterious, personal invitation to meet with God at a place called 'The Shack'.

Hidden Figures
2016
as Dorothy Vaughan
The untold story of Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson – brilliant African-American women working at NASA and serving as the brain...

Bad Santa 2
2016
as Opal
Fueled by cheap whiskey, greed and hatred, Willie Soke teams up with his angry little sidekick, Marcus, to knock off a Chicago charity on Christmas Ev...

The Free World
2016
as Linda Workman
Following his release from a brutal stretch in prison for crimes he didn't commit, Mo is struggling to adapt to life on the outside. When his world co...

Allegiant
2016
as Johanna Reyes
Beatrice Prior and Tobias Eaton venture into the world outside of the fence and are taken into protective custody by a mysterious agency known as the ...

Zootopia
2016
as Mrs. Otterton (voice)
Determined to prove herself, Officer Judy Hopps, the first bunny on Zootopia's police force, jumps at the chance to crack her first case - even if it ...

The Great Gilly Hopkins
2015
as Miss Harris
Young and feisty Gilly Hopkins (Sophie Nélisse) devises a scheme to escape from her new foster home and reunite with her birth mother.

Fathers and Daughters
2015
as Dr. Corman
A Pulitzer-winning writer grapples with being a widower and father after a mental breakdown, while, 27 years later, his grown daughter struggles to fo...

Insurgent
2015
as Johanna Reyes
Beatrice Prior must confront her inner demons and continue her fight against a powerful alliance which threatens to tear her society apart.

Black or White
2014
as Rowena Jeffers
A grieving widower is drawn into a custody battle over his granddaughter, whom he helped raise her entire life.

Get on Up
2014
as Aunt Honey
A chronicle of James Brown's rise from extreme poverty to become one of the most influential musicians in history.

Jesus People
2013
as Angel Angelique
Based on the hilarious and popular FunnyorDie.com web series, the film charts the rise and fall of America's worst Christian pop band! Pastor Jerry g...

Paradise
2013
as Loray
After surviving a plane crash a young conservative woman suffers a crisis of faith.

Lost on Purpose
2013
as Nurse Keller
Our story takes place in the fertile, San Joaquin Valley. Fueled by gin and sheer determination, Elizabeth James (Ms. Liz) operates her third generati...

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
2013
as Martha (voice)
In their quest to confront the ultimate evil, Percy and his friends battle swarms of mythical creatures to find the mythical Golden Fleece and to stop...

Snowpiercer
2013
as Tanya
In a future where a failed global-warming experiment kills off most life on the planet, a class system evolves aboard the Snowpiercer; a train that tr...

Fruitvale Station
2013
as Wanda
Oakland, California. Young Afro-American Oscar Grant crosses paths with family members, friends, enemies and strangers before facing his fate on the p...

Fruitvale Station
2013
Co-Executive Producer
Oakland, California. Young Afro-American Oscar Grant crosses paths with family members, friends, enemies and strangers before facing his fate on the p...

Letters to Jackie: Remembering President Kennedy
2013
as Narrator (voice)
Revisits President John F. Kennedy's presidential legacy through 21 of the more than 800,000 condolence letters written to Jackie Kennedy after JFK's ...

Call Me Crazy: A Five Film
2013
as Dr. Nance
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.

Blues for Willadean
2012
as LeSonia Robinson
The film adaptation of Del Shores' hit play. Under the thumb of her abusive husband, post-middle age Willadean feels life has passed her by until she ...

Smashed
2012
as Jenny
Kate and Charlie like to have a good time. Their marriage thrives on a shared fondness for music, laughter… and getting smashed. When Kate’s partying ...

Flypaper
2011
as Madge Wiggins
A man caught in the middle of two simultaneous robberies at a bank desperately tries to protect the teller with whom he's secretly in love.

The Help
2011
as Minny Jackson
Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson ...

Just Peck
2011
as Detention Teacher
At 104 pounds dripping wet, baby-faced sophomore Michael Peck (age 15) is not exactly the coolest guy at American High. Peck’s teachers make him feel ...

Peep World
2010
as Alison
On the day of their Father's 70th birthday party, four siblings come to terms with the publication of a novel written by the youngest sibling, that ex...

Love and Distrust
2010
as Rhonda (segment "Auto Motives")
This collection of five short films artfully portrays desire's ability to both empower and destroy those who encounter it.

Dinner for Schmucks
2010
as Madame Nora
Rising executive Tim Conrad works for a boss who hosts a monthly dinner in which the guest who brings the biggest buffoon gets a career-boost. Tim pla...

Small Town Saturday Night
2010
as Rhonda Dooley
Just days before Rhett (Chris Pine) is leaving for Nashville to pursue a lifelong dream of being a singer/songwriter, his girlfriend Samantha (Bre Bla...

Herpes Boy
2009
as Rochelle
A social outcast with a facial birthmark finds his world flipped upside down after he posts videos of his quirky life onto the Internet and becomes an...

Halloween II
2009
as Nurse Daniels
Laurie Strode struggles to come to terms with her brother Michael's deadly return to Haddonfield, Illinois. Meanwhile, Michael prepares for another re...

Drag Me to Hell
2009
as Bank Co-Worker
After denying a woman the extension she needs to keep her home, loan officer Christine Brown sees her once-promising life take a startling turn for th...

The Soloist
2009
as Troubled Woman
A Los Angeles journalist befriends a homeless Juilliard-trained musician, while looking for a new article for the paper.

Love at First Hiccup
2009
as Mrs. Hambrick
Victor, a bumbling and gullible high school freshman, has caught a serious case of Anya-itis—an acute, incurable crush on hot senior Anya. Too bad she...

Seven Pounds
2008
as Kate the Home Health Care Nurse
An IRS agent with a fateful secret embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers.

Pretty Ugly People
2008
as Mary
Lucy has always used food to escape life's problems, but when this self-titled "fat friend" lures her group of old college buddies to the Montana wild...

The Spleenectomy
2008
as Nurse
After passionately auditioning for a role in a local community theater production, Judy is cast aside by a pretentious theater director. Lucky for her...

Wizards of Waverly Place: Wizard School
2008
as Dr. Evilini
When Alex is caught using magic to clean her room she is forced to go to wizard school with Justin. Max and Jerry camp out on the terrace to prove the...

The Nines
2007
as Streetwalker
A troubled actor, a television show runner, and an acclaimed videogame designer find their lives intertwining in mysterious and unsettling ways.

Pulse
2006
as Landlady
When the dead discover a means to contact the living through electronic devices, cellphones and computers become open gateways to monstrosities and de...

Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School
2006
as Ayisha Lebaron
Frank Keane, a baker by trade, has been consumed by grief over his wife's untimely death. But everything changes when he pulls his bread truck over on...

Beauty Shop
2005
as Big Customer
Far from Chicago, hairdresser Gina Norris has relocated to Atlanta with her daughter and has quickly established herself as a rare talent in her profe...

Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous
2005
as Middle-Aged Woman
After her triumph at the Miss United States pageant, FBI agent Gracie Hart becomes an overnight sensation -- and the new "face of the FBI". But it's t...

Pretty Persuasion
2005
as Woman
A 15-year-old girl incites chaos among her friends and a media frenzy when she accuses her drama teacher of sexual harassment.

Coach Carter
2005
as Mrs. Battle
Based on a true story, in which Richmond High School head basketball coach Ken Carter made headlines in 1999 for benching his undefeated team due to p...

Breakin' All the Rules
2004
as Stylist
After being dumped by his model girlfriend, aspiring writer Quincy Watson quits his job and is inspired to pen the ultimate how-to book on breaking up...

Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!
2004
as Janine
A small-town girl wins a date with a Hollywood star through a contest. When the date goes better than expected, a love triangle forms between the girl...

Bad Santa
2003
as Opal
You'd better watch out - Santa Claus Willie T. Soke is coming to town and he doesn't care if you've been naughty or nice. Wille's favorite holiday tra...

Chicken Party
2003
as Laqueta Mills
A comedic look at crime, love, tolerance and fried chicken.

S.W.A.T.
2003
as Neighbor in Alley
Hondo Harrelson recruits Jim Street to join an elite unit of the Los Angeles Police Department. Together they seek out more members, including tough D...

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde
2003
as Security Guard
Now a rising young lawyer, Elle Woods is about to make partner at her firm, but when she finds out her dog's relatives are being used as cosmetic test...

Sol Goode
2003
as Unemployment Clerk
Sol Goode, a charismatic L.A. twenty-something, has always relied on charm, good looks, and fast talk to glide through life. But his luck may have run...

Little John
2002
as Waitress
The unmarried daughter of a Texas rancher gives birth to an unwanted child. She puts the child up for adoption and moves away from home. Without her k...

Spider-Man
2002
as Check-In Girl
After being bitten by a genetically altered spider at Oscorp, nerdy but endearing high school student Peter Parker is endowed with amazing powers to b...

Everything Put Together
2001
as Nurse B
In a quiet suburban community where everything is peaceful and in its place, a single crack has just appeared. Angie and Russ are a young married coup...

The Sky is Falling
2001
as Nurse #2
A young woman, struggling to become a novelist, has her life go into a tailspin. Her first novel is rejected, her non-committal boy friend decides to ...

Follow the Stars Home
2001
as Hildy
Two brothers - one virtuous, one feckless - are in love with the same woman. She falls for Brother Wrong, carrying a torch for him even after he deser...

The Journeyman
2001
as Black Belly
In the Wild West at the turn of the century, two young brothers watch as their Grandpa is gunned down in cold blood. The desperados kidnap the older b...

Missing Pieces
2001
as Elegant Guest (as Octavia L. Spencer)
Atticus (James Coburn) goes to the small Mexican town where his estranged son (Paul Kersey) was a resident to discover how he died.

Four Dogs Playing Poker
2000
as Waitress
With the help of their mentor Felix, a group of the best friends and first-time thieves steal a valuable statuette for a ruthless black market art dea...

American Virgin
2000
as Agnes Large
When your father is a pornographer, what can you do to shock him? If you're Katrina Bartalotti, you announce that you're going to lose your virginity ...

Big Momma's House
2000
as Twila
When a street-smart FBI agent is sent to Georgia to protect a beautiful single mother and her son from an escaped convict, he is forced to impersonate...

What Planet Are You From?
2000
as Baby Nurse
A human-looking alien from a highly advanced but emotionless all-male society is sent to Earth to impregnate a woman and bring the child back to their...

Being John Malkovich
1999
as Woman in Elevator
One day at work, unsuccessful puppeteer Craig finds a portal into the head of actor John Malkovich. The portal soon becomes a passion for anybody who ...

Blue Streak
1999
as Shawna
Miles Logan is a jewel thief who just hit the big time by stealing a huge diamond. However, after two years in jail, he comes to find out that he hid ...

Never Been Kissed
1999
as Cynthia
Josie Geller, a baby-faced junior copywriter at the Chicago Sun-Times, must pose as a student at her former high school to research contemporary teena...

Lansky
1999
as Evelyn
Organized crime boss Meyer Lansky remembers his life as he is moving about the world looking for some country that will take him in since the USA have...

Sparkler
1997
as Wanda
Melba is a Californian trailer-park girl who is told to look for three kings by a phone psychic, and when she meets three guys - Trent, Brad and Joel ...

The 6th Man
1997
as Nativity Watson
A college athlete returns from the dead to help his brother's basketball team win the NCAA title.

Valley Girls
1996
as Cheerleader
Two Welsh women win a trip to Hollywood.

A Time to Kill
1996
as Roark's Nurse
A young lawyer defends a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his 10-year-old daughter, sparking a rebirth of the KKK.
Nobody Nothing Nowhere
N/A
The story of Ruth, one of the Non-People, human-looking beings designed and trained for the sole purpose of filling in a realistic world for a bland g...
Untitled Holiday Comedy Project
N/A
The film follows two women fighting the elements to make it home for Christmas
The Heart
N/A
A couple who, while desperate for cash, agree to take the job of delivering a human heart from New York to Florida in 24 hours. When they realize that...
Ma 2
N/A
as Sue Ann
Following the events of the first film, Sue Ann now resides in the Pacific Northwest, working as a real estate agent, when her murderous past as “Ma” ...
Nobody Nothing Nowhere
N/A
Producer
The story of Ruth, one of the Non-People, human-looking beings designed and trained for the sole purpose of filling in a realistic world for a bland g...