Danielle Brooks has only been active in the entertainment industry since 2015, but she has amassed a great catalog of projects among her best movies and TV shows. Brooks made her professional acting debut in 2012, but it was her role in Orange is the New Black that became her breakthrough a short time later. Brooks, however, has not stuck strictly to streaming dramedies. Instead, she has turned herself into a versatile character actor.

Brooks rarely plays the same type of role twice. While there may be commonalities between some of her characters, they all stand out as distinct personalities. Even if she only appears in a project briefly, Brooks has the charisma and stage presence to steal the scene. A background in theater, and a Broadway run in The Color Purple musical have helped make her a powerful performer in all of her best movies and TV shows.

10 Eat Wheaties! (2020)

Danielle Brooks As Wendy

Arrested Development’s Tony Hale is the true star of the movie, which relies heavily on cringe humor to sell its comedy. Brooks, however, also shines in a ing role.

The movie centers on Hale’s Sid Straw, who is selected to plan the reunion for West Coast alumni of the University of Pennsylvania. He tries to reach out to actress Elizabeth Banks, whom he knew in college, to attend, but as people do not believe that he actually knew her, he becomes obsessed with proving them wrong. He becomes so obsessed that his relationships and his work suffer, and he even ends up in court with a restraining order issued by Banks’ assistant.

While some of the humor in the movie can be hit or miss because of the more dramatic elements to the story, Brooks is fantastic in the ing role of one of Sid’s friends. She gets to play just a little quirky as she is there for Sid while his world falls apart.

9 Clemency (2019)

Danielle Brooks As Evette

This is another instance in which Brooks appears in a ing role in a film. Her time in the industry is stacked with ing roles that allow her to steal the spotlight from the leads and help to bolster them with emotional performances.

In Clemency, Alfre Woodard stars as the warden of a prison where an inmate has been sentenced to death. She struggles with her place in the justice system and what it means to be partially responsible for taking a life.

Brooks appears as the ex of the inmate and the mother of his child. While she is not the focus of the movie, her presence in it is one of the more heartbreaking parts of the story. She helps to provide a way to connect with the reality of the modern prison system and how it affects those related to the people actually behind bars.

Clemency won the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

8 Karma’s World (2021-2022)

Danielle Brooks As Dr. Lillie Carter-Grant

Karma’s World is an animated children’s series created by Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges. Ludacris is more often known for his own music in the hip-hop world and his appearances in action movies, but here, his aim is to foster creativity in children, specifically children of color.

The series follows a little girl named Karma as she makes up songs about the goings on in her life. Populating the series are the little girl’s family and friends. While Ludacris provides the voice of her father, Brooks is the voice of her mother.

Brooks is very well-suited to doing voiceover work in animation because of her theater background. She is gifted at controlling the tone and emotion in her voice, and it is surprising that she only has a handful of animated roles in her career so far. Here, she is warm and inviting as the mother to a young child.

7 Close Enough (2020-2022)

Danielle Brooks As Pearle Watson

Another animated series on Danielle Brooks’ resume is Close Enough. This series, however, is aimed at adults rather than children, and comes from the same creative team as Regular Show.

The series follows a group of tenants living in a duplex in Los Angeles. A married couple, their children, and their divorced friends make up the primary cast with their landlord in a ing role. Brooks voices the landlord.

Pearle Watson is not the typical stand-offish landlord who makes life harder for her tenants though. Instead, Watson is a former officer for the Los Angeles Police Department who offers a booming voice and a heavy interest in the people who live on her property. It’s a comedic role that plays to her strengths in short segments. Each episode features two segments with different stories in the same way a lot of traditional Saturday morning cartoons did.

6 Master Of None (2015-2017)

Danielle Brooks As Shannon

Master of None had a lot of impressive guest stars during its run, but Danielle Brooks is one of the series’ best. She only appears in three episodes, and she manages to make a big impression.

The series was co-created by Aziz Ansari, and Ansari played the lead role of Dev Shah for the first two seasons of the show. An actor just entering his 30s, Dev’s journey in relationships and career milestones make up the bulk of his story in those seasons before the third switches to a new protagonist.

Brooks appeared in those first two seasons as Shannon, Dev’s agent. There are shades of one of her more famous roles (Taystee of Orange is the New Black fame) here as the two shows were on at the same time. A lot of viewers compared the two because both women suffered no fools and went after what they wanted. As Shannon, however, Brooks plays a more polished version of the character type, someone who is going to rub elbows with the elite, but also, put them in their place.

Master of None was nominated for 11 Emmys during its run, winning three.

5 Orange Is The New Black (2013-2019)

Danielle Brooks As Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson

The original plan for Taystee was for the character to only appear in two episodes.

Orange is the New Black might be the series that Brooks is best-known for. She’s a memorable character and it really helped to put her on the map for screen roles despite already being a successful stage actor.

Orange is the New Black is inspired by the memoir of Piper Kerman. Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) ends up in prison after moving a suitcase full of drug money for her girlfriend, an international drug smuggler. The series focuses on both Piper’s experiences during her time in prison and examines how the prison system treats women.

The series provided breakout roles for a lot of actors who had already been working in the industry for years, not unlike Brooks. Brooks’ Taystee, however, is often referenced as the emotional core of the show by critics and fans alike. Taystee is the character who most often advocates for her fellow prisoners, wanting to see them treated humanely, no matter their crimes. She takes on a leadership role and is the catalyst for a prison riot at one point in the show.

The original plan for Taystee was for the character to only appear in two episodes. Brooks, however, stood out in the role and the producers and writers kept her on. Brooks was nominated for an NAA Image Award and a Satellite Award during her time on the show.

Orange is the New Black received six Golden Globe nominations and 21 Emmy nominations, ultimately winning four Emmys during its run. The entire ensemble was also recognized by the Screen Actors Guild, winning Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series three times.

4 Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia (2021)

Danielle Brooks As Mahalia

Robing Roberts has built an impressive career for herself as both a journalist and television personality. She has also strived to make sure that the stories of women of color are not forgotten. That’s why she made sure that this movie about Mahalia Jackson was made.

Brooks was nominated for a Critics Choice Award and an NAA Image Award for her role in Mahalia. She also served as a co-executive producer.

The movie is a relatively standard biopic about the gospel singer made for Lifetime. Though the network is known for producing salacious melodramas, it has also been the home to quite a few biopics centering on historical women. In the case of Mahalla Jackson, her story as a singer plays out alongside the civil rights movement for African Americans.

While it is easy to be dismissive of biopics made for the small screen because they do not have the budgets of something like Elvis or Rocketman, Mahalia soars, even on television screens. Much of that is down to Brooks’ magnetic performance and powerful voice in the role. Salon’s review notes that Brooks is certainly meant for bigger stages:

Brooks reaches beyond the screen and grabs you every time she breaks into song, doubling that power to meet the grandeur of bigger stages.

3 The Public’s Much Ado About Nothing (2019)

Danielle Brooks As Beatrice

Not everyone can be on the theater scene in New York. There have been quite a few enterprising moves to record Broadway shows for wider audiences, like Hamilton and The Newsies, but PBS has also been helpful in getting off-Broadway musicals and stage plays to general audiences. As part of their Great Performances series, PBS broadcast The Public’s staging of Much Ado About Nothing. Like PBS, The Public is also a not-for-profit organization. While PBS aims to bring content to television, The Public aims to bring theater to everyone. It’s a great match.

Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare’s comedies written at the turn of the 16th century. It has been adapted many times, most recently, and very loosely, in the romantic comedy Anyone But You. The Public’s play is a slightly more traditional approach to the story, in which Beatrice and Benedick get off on the wrong foot, constantly bantering with one another alongside a seemingly better matched couple.

Brooks has a confidence, and even a swagger, befitting Beatrice. Her superb comedic timing is even perfect for Shakespeare.

Brooks was nominated for a Drama League Award for her role in Much Ado About Nothing.

2 Peacemaker (2022-)

Danielle Brooks As Leota Waller Adebayo

James Gunn has a gift for taking lesser known comic book characters and turning them into household names. He did it with of the Guardians of the Galaxy for Marvel and of the Suicide Squad for DC. Peacemaker is a series that has spun out of those Suicide Squad movies, and the series is off-beat, a little vulgar, and endlessly entertaining thanks to the assembled ensemble.

The series features John Cena in the title role. While Peacemaker considers himself a hero, those around him are not entirely sure. He and a team put together by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) are tasked with Project Butterfly, identifying people who have been taken over by a parasitic species that look like butterflies and figuring out their plan.

Brooks plays a rookie member of the team who really does not seem like she fits in with spies and superheroes. As it turns out, her character hides a very big connection to Amanda Waller in that she is her daughter and has long been trained for field work. The role is definitely one of Brooks’ funniest, even when she’s playing the more restrained member of the group.

Brooks was nominated for a Saturn Award for her role in Peacemaker.

1 The Color Purple (2023)

Danielle Brooks As Sofia

The Color Purple is Danielle Brooks’ best movie so far in what is sure to be a long and successful career.

Prior to The Color Purple being adapted for the big screen as a musical, Brooks starred in the Broadway show. From 2015-2017, Brooks played the role of Sofia on the stage (and received a Tony nomination) and was cast as Sofia in the movie adaptation of the musical as well. Alice Walker’s novel has previously been adapted for the screen in a non-musical version. That version released in 1985, so there was a big gap between the two screen versions of the story, allowing for a new generation to see the story in a new way.

The Color Purple follows the life of Celie, a young black woman in the southern United States as she is taken advantage of by the men in her life, separated from her sister, and learns about the wider world from the women who enter her life. Every adaptation of the story has been an examination of resilience in the face of adversity and tragedy. This version of the story just happens to be propelled forward by astonishing vocalists with Fantasia Barrino in the lead and Danielle Brooks in a ing role.

Brooks was nominated for an Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA, Critics Choice Award, and SAG Award for her role in The Color Purple.

Brooks is Sofia, a young woman who is fierce and defiant despite the circumstances she finds herself in. She has the standout song “Hell No” and Brooks steals nearly every scene she is in. Even when Sofia loses some of her shine, Brooks is magnetic on screen. The Color Purple is Danielle Brooks’ best movie so far in what is sure to be a long and successful career.