Pam Grier

Pamela Suzette Grier (born May 26, 1949) is an American actress. She achieved fame for her starring roles in a string of 1970s women in prison and blaxploitation films for American International Pictures and New World Pictures, most notably Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974). Her other films during this period include The Big Doll House (1971), The Big Bird Cage (1972), Black Mama, White Mama (1973), Scream Blacula Scream (1973), The Arena (1974), Sheba, Baby (1975), Bucktown (1975) and Friday Foster (1975). Described by Quentin Tarantino as cinema's first female action star, she starred as the titular character in Tarantino's 1997 crime film Jackie Brown, for which she received a Satellite Award and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for a SAG Award. For six seasons, Grier portrayed Kate "Kit" Porter on the Showtime television series The L Word, which ran from 2004 until 2009. She received an Emmy nomination for her work in the animated program Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child.