Jurnee Smollett’s 10 Best Movies and TV Shows

The best Jurnee Smollett Movies and TV shows reveal an actress who got a huge early start to her career and parlayed it into something special as she got older. Smollett was one of six siblings, all of whom entered the entertainment industry in one way or another. She got a very early start as a child actor, working on TV shows like Whole house And The Cosbys While you also made your film debut in the Robin Williams movie Jack. However, her breakout came when she was 10 and starred in Eve’s Bayou.

After earning award recognition for the performance, she continued to build a solid career over the next few years and continued to work towards a film and television career in a variety of genres. Over her three decades in the business, Smollett worked alongside Denzel WashingtonStarred in a DCU movie, and took part in several TV shows that featured inspirational sports stories, fantastical vampire lore and even HP Lovecraft horror themes.

10

Gridiron Gang (2006)

Jurnee Smollett played Danielle Rollins

In 2006, Dwayne Johnson was still working on building his Hollywood brand and appeared in a sports drama movie called Gridiron pace. Johnson starred as Sean Porter, a man who works for a juvenile detention center who wants to help young people find a way to improve their lives before their release. He decides to start a football team in the prisonSo the incarcerated teens can feel like they are part of something and learn discipline and responsibility along the way.

Jurnee Smollett stars in Gridiron pace Like Danielle Rollins. She is the girlfriend of Willie Weathers (Jade Yorker) and went to high school with Leon Hayes (Maurice McRae), two of the main characters and inmates at the juvenile detention facility. The film received a fresh score of 43% Rotten Tomatoes and showed that Johnson can do something other than pure action in his movies. As for Smollett, it was a small role, but her connection to Willie made her an important character in the story.

9

The Order (2024)

Jurnee Smollett played Joanne Carney

The order Premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in August 2024, but its theatrical release is not until December 2024. The film is based on the non-fiction novel The silent brotherhood by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt and follows an FBI agent tracking a white supremacist group called The Order in the 1980s. The real-life group was active between 1983 and 1984 and was labeled a terrorist organization, they are best known for murdering radio show host Alan Berg in 1984.

The cast is impressive, with Jude Law as the lead FBI agent on the case, Terry Husk, and Nicolas Hulot as Bob Matthews, the leader of the Order. Jurnee Smollett stars as Joanne Carney, another FBI agent on the case. The festival screening was a great success, as it received a fresh score of 83% Rotten Tomatoes, with praise for the style and a dark look at American violence. It was nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival but lost to Pedro Almodóvar The room next door.

8

Birds of Prey (2020)

Jurnee Smollett played Black Canary

Jurnee Smollett’s high-profile movie role came in 2020 when she appeared in the DCU movie Birds of prey. This was Harley Quinn’s movie after her introduction in suicide squad, And it saw her team up with other major DC female heroes to stop a crime lord known as Black Mask (Ewan McGregor). The other female heroes included The Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), and Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett).

Fans may recognize the name of Black Canary from the Arrowverse where Katie Cassidy played Dinah Lance, who later became the Black Canary in this world. however, Smollett played a different version of Black CanaryA nightclub singer at Black Mask’s club who chooses to help Harley Quinn fight back against her evil boss. In both cases, her powers involve a supersonic scream. Birds of prey had a 78% Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score and earned Smollett a Saturn Awards nomination.

7

The Burial (2023)

Jurnee Smollett played Mame Downes

In 2023, Jurnee Smollett has a role in the legal drama The burial. The film stars Tommy Lee Jones as a man who sets up a deal to sell parts of his funeral home business to a company, but when they try to pull one over on him, he hires a young personal injury attorney to represent him, hoping to win A predominantly black jury. Jamie Foxx plays the young lawyer. However, when the company he’s suing realizes this, they hire an all-black legal team led by a woman named Mame Downes.

Jurnee Smollett stars as Mame Downes in the movieAnd she’s the one the company thinks can help sway the jury in this case. The burial Based on a real-life case, the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim. It has a 92% Rotten Tomatoes score, Certified Fresh and an 82% Popcornmeter score. However, it only received a limited theatrical release and ended up on Prime Video in 2023.

6

True Blood (2013-2014)

Jurnee Smollett played Nicole Wright

true blood is based on the Charlaine Harris vampire franchise known as The Southern Vampire Mysteries. In the series, vampires have become known to the world, and most are surviving by using synthetic blood called “true blood” rather than hunting humans. The series follows vampires’ struggle to assimilate into society. At the same time, there are also both anti-vampire organizations trying to shut them down and vampire groups that remain intent on evil, making it difficult for the good vampires to live in peace.

The main story follows a waitress named Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a telepath who falls in love with an ancient vampire named Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer). Jurnee Smollett starred in the series’ sixth and seventh seasons as Nicole Wright, A human co-founder of the VUS (Vampire Unity Society), a group that wants peace between humans and vampires. true blood Lasted for seven seasons and 80 episodes and remained a huge hit for HBO throughout its run.

5

Underground (2016-2017)

Jurnee Smollett played Rosalee

In 2016, Jurnee Smollett joined the cast of UndergroundA television series that aired on WGN America that followed the operations of the Underground Railroad in antebellum, Georgia. The series focuses on a group called the Macon 7, a fictional group whose goal is to use everything at their disposal to evade and escape slave catchers and overseers. in the cast, There are three members of the Macon 7 listed as main cast members – Aldis Hodge’s Noah, Jurnee Smollett’s Rosalee, and Alano Miller’s Cato.

For Smollett, she is a young and sheltered house slave on the Macon plantation whose parents are Ernestine, a slave, and Tom Macon, her master. Unfortunately, the show was canceled after only two seasons when Sinclair Broadcasting planned to buy Tribune Media (via Term). This is despite its very high critical ratings, with an approval rating of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and 100% for the second season. It was another case of Smollett delivering an impressive performance on screen.

4

The Great Debaters (2007)

Jurnee Smollett played Samantha Booke

Released in 2007, Denzel Washington directs and stars in the historical drama The great debaters. The movie follows the Wiley College debate team in 1935 Texas, led by coach Melvin B. Tolson (Washington). Melvin’s goal was to put his team on equal grounds with white colleges in the American South during the 1930s, a time when the Jim Crow laws still existed and P.[public lynchings were still commonplace. He eventually led his school to debate the top schools in the nation.

Jurnee Smollett stars in the movie as Samantha Booke, a character based on the real-life Henrietta Bell Wells, an acclaimed poet and the only female member of the Wiley debate team who participated in the first interracial debate in the United States. The film was a minor box office success and it was a critical success with an 80% Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score and won several Image Awards, including one for Smollett for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture.

3

Lovecraft Country (2020)

Jurnee Smollett Played Letitia “Leti” Lewis

In 2020, Jurnee Smollett joined the cast of the fantasy series Lovecraft Country. Based on the novel by Matt Ruff, the series follows Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) as he sets out on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America to find his missing father. He takes the trip with his friend Letitia and his Uncle George, and along the way, they have to survive racist terrors in white America and monsters that bear a strong similarity to the H.P. Lovecraft-created creatures.

Smollett stars as Letitia “Leti” Lewis, Atticus’s old friend and love interest. The series was critically acclaimed and received high praise for its themes, stories, and how it contrasted the Lovecraft monsters with the racial issues in Jim Crow America. It received an 88% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and even earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Television Series—Drama and 18 different Primetime Emmy Award nominations. However, HBO canceled Lovecraft Country after only one season.

2

Friday Night Lights (2009-2011)

Jurnee Smollett Played Jess Merriweather

Friday Night Lights was originally a 1990 novel by H.G. Bissinger, telling the story of life in Midland and Odessa, Texas, and how high school football was one of the only things that brought entertainment to an area that lived and died based on oil production in America. The book was turned into a movie in 2004 and became a TV series in 2006. In the TV series, the story moved away from the Permian Basin and into a fictional small West Texas town, but the story still followed the importance of high school football in these towns.

Jurnee Smollett stars as Jess Merriweather, a main character who shows up in season 4 and lasts until the show’s end in season 5. She was a high school student in the series, the daughter of a former state-championship-winning quarterback who grew to resent the team and the town’s feelings about football in small-town Texas. She then becomes a female coach for the team and moves on to rise to the coaching ranks as time goes on. The show won three Emmys in 13 nominations.

1

Eve’s Bayou (1997)

Jurnee Smollett Played Eve Batiste

After Jurnee Smollett made her film debut with a small role in Robin Williams’s movie Jack, she enjoyed her breakout in the Southern Gothic drama movie Eve’s Bayou. The film is about a 10-year-old girl named Eve Batiste who lives with her siblings in a wealthy Creole-American community in Louisiana. Her dad, Louis (Samuel L. Jackson), is a doctor named Louis who claims that his ancestors founded the town of Eve’s Bayou. However, Eve’s life changes when she sees her dad cheating on her mother.

When Eve uncovers more dark secrets about her dad, she goes to a voodoo priestess and asks for supernatural help for revenge, and the story goes in unexpected directions. Eve’s Bayou has an 83% fresh Rotten Tomatoes rating, and it was listed on many of the best-film lists for 1997. Eve’s Bayou received seven NAACP Image Awards nominations, including one for Jurnee Smollett, who played the role of Eve Batiste and proved she was a star in the making.