CHRISTINA JACKSON

“Devotion”

When Jackson was in the seventh grade, the drama club teacher invited her to join. “In Newark, New Jersey, there were not a whole lot of opportunities, so I immediately threw everything I had into it,” Jackson recalls.

Now shooting Apple TV’S “Swagger,” Jackson appears in the upcoming films “Devotion” and “Shirley.” Her first starring role was in “Annie,” but equally important was seeing her first Broadway show as part of a program for inner city kids. “I saw ‘Aida’ with Heather Headley,” Jackson says. “Seeing this beautiful statuesque Black woman singing her heart out on Broadway let me know there was space for me.”

She carved out her own space on “Boardwalk Empire,” a “validating and scary” big step forward. “I had intense scenes sparring with Michael K. Williams and I was nervous, but I knew they wouldn’t have kept giving me those scenes if I hadn’t earned it,” Jackson says.

Recent years have brought even more diverse roles for Black women and Jackson says she’s becoming “more selective about the scripts I’d like to lend my abilities to.”

“Devotion,” in which Jonathan Majors plays the first Black aviator in the Navy, and “Shirley,” starring Regina King as Shirley Chisholm during her groundbreaking 1972 presidential campaign, fit that bill. “I feel a sense of responsibility and I’m excited that I’m getting to help tell these stories and play women I’m really proud of,” Jackson says.

— Stuart Miller

Reps: Agency: Paradigm; Management: MKSD Talent; Legal: Jackoway Austen Tyerman Influences: Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Bell Hooks, Angela Bassett