Nafessa Williams

Personal context

Summary

Nafessa Williams is an actor known for Black Lightning, where she played Anissa Pierce, and Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody. Her work includes recurring themes of identity, belonging, and representation, which she has discussed publicly: she has said representation matters and that playing a black lesbian superhero gave her a chance to speak to groups rarely seen on television. In 2020, she wrote that Hollywood should confront inequality, hire more black writers and hairstylists, and include more black stories and creatives behind the camera. No public partisan or campaign affiliations are on record.