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Woman Crush Wednesday
Happy Hump Day, everybody! We are already at the last Woman Crush Wednesday of June, but before we move on to July, we want to celebrate a hardworking actress, writer, and director who has been working in Hollywood for over 20 years. She impressive, talented, and should definitely be on your radar if she isn’t already: she’s Yolonda Ross!
WHO’S THAT GAL: Yolonda Ross
WHY WE’RE CRUSHING:
Ross is back as Jada Washington in the third season of Showtime Original Series The Chi, which premiered on the platform on Sunday, June 21. Jada’s son, Emmett (Jacob Latimore), juggles his business and his growing family, A wedding alters Kevin (Alex Hibbert) and Kiesha’s (Birgundi Baker) lives, Jake’s (Michael Epps) estranged brother Trig (Luke James) lands back in town on a mission, and The Chi creator, Lena Waithe, joins the cast for the first time in a recurring role as mayoral candidate Camille Hallaway. Clearly there’s no short of action to come in the show’s third season, and we’re especially excited to see what Ross brings to the table in the episodes that will be dropping over the next few weeks.
WHERE YOU’VE SEEN HER BEFORE: Ross began her on-screen professional acting career in 1997 in an episode of FOX police drama series New York Undercover and quickly to began a vast array of impressive credits in both film and television. Her film debut was 2001 drama Stranger Inside as Treasure, and for which she was nominated for Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance and Black Reel Award for Best Actress: T.V. Movie/Cable, and won a Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Actor. From there, Ross appeared in television shows like 24, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Lie to Me, Treme, The Get Down, and How to Get Away with Murder, as well as movies like 2002 biographical drama Antwone Fisher, 2006 erotic comedy-drama Shortbus, 2007 musical drama I’m Not There, 2015 biographical drama Whitney, and 2019 drama Bull. Beyond acting, Wrote also wrote, directed, produced, and starred in 2012 short film Breaking Night and produced 2016 short family drama film, Walk for Me. These are just some highlights among many credits on screens big and small that have built into an exceptional filmography and give us a lot of excitement as we wait to see what Ross will do next.
WHERE YOU’LL SEE HER AGAIN: While we’re not quite sure what’s next for Ross, there are luckily still plenty of ways to keep up with her work as an actress, artist, and human being. You can (and we encourage you to) check her out on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and her personal website right now.
