Starletta DuPois

Starletta DuPois is an American actress who grew up in Philadelphia and has worked across stage, film and television for decades. She earned a Tony nomination for her featured role in The Mighty Gents in 1978, and later played Ruth Younger in a Union Square Theatre staging of A Raisin in the Sun, taking an NAACP Image Award in 1989 for her work in the American Playhouse version of that play. Her film credits include The Gambler (1974), Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), Hollywood Shuffle (1987), Ricochet (1991), The Waterdance (1992), The Thing Called Love (1993), 3 Strikes (2000), Big Momma's House (2000), Friday After Next (2002), The Notebook (2004), the True to the Game trilogy and Charming the Hearts of Men (2021). On television she guest-starred on The Jeffersons, Hill Street Blues and Lost, and starred in The Rich and the Ruthless from 2017 to 2021.