--- name: "Gabourey Sidibe" canonical: "https://film.one/person/gabourey-sidibe" fi1m_id: "gabourey-sidibe" imdb_id: "nm2829737" tmdb_id: 109560 wikidata_id: "Q230113" roles: ["Actor"] born: "6 May 1983" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 72 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-10-05T00:55:50.721624+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Gabourey Sidibe ## Identity Gabourey Sidibe - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/gabourey-sidibe - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** gabourey-sidibe - **IMDb ID:** nm2829737 - **TMDB ID:** 109560 - **Wikidata ID:** Q230113 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabourey_Sidibe, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q230113, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2829737/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/109560 Actor. Born 6 May 1983 in New York City, New York, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 6 May 1983, New York City, New York, USA - **Active:** 2009–2016 - **Also known as:** Ґабурі Сідібе, Ґеббі - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination - **Average Fi1m score:** 72, as actor, over 2 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 72 (1), 2010s 72 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabourey_Sidibe, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q230113, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2829737/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/109560 ## Streaming the US now - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire*](https://film.one/film/precious-based-on-the-novel-push-by-sapphire.md) (72) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Gabourey Sidibe > Gabourey Sidibe's first performance, in *Precious* (2009), was built on a nearly shut face and a voiceover that disagreed with it, and it is the one to see. Since then she has worked steadily, mostly on television, without another part that asked as much. Early in *Precious* (2009), after a beating, a sixteen-year-old girl looks in a mirror and sees a thin blonde white girl looking back, and her voiceover carries on as if nothing had happened. That is Gabourey Sidibe's method in one shot. She plays Precious with her face nearly shut, head down, coat on in the school corridors, and lets Geoffrey S. Fletcher's voiceover say everything the face refuses to. It could have been a cheat. It is not, because she allows the two to disagree, and the gap between them is where the character lives. We were more shaken by that mirror than by anything Mo'Nique's Mary does with her hands, which is a strange thing to be able to say about someone's first film. It was a first film in every sense. Sidibe had no training and no professional experience when she auditioned; she was a psychology student in New York, and Lee Daniels cast her as the lead anyway. What she brought was stillness. The film around her does not always deserve it. Daniels does not do restraint, the daydream sequences keep tripping over the story, and the second half settles into the shape of the inspirational-teacher film. Sidibe and Mo'Nique are not doing anything that old. They play a mother and daughter who have never once been kind to each other, and we believed every minute. Then came television, and a great deal of it. *The Big C* (2010–2013) was the first series; *American Horror Story* took her on from 2013, first as Queenie in *Coven*, and Ryan Murphy has kept bringing her back; *Empire* (2015–2020) made her a series regular as Becky Williams and put her back with Daniels. There has been a thriller, *Antebellum* (2020), a memoir in 2017 and a short she directed the same year, *The Tale of Four*. We have not reviewed the television, and we will not pretend to judge it here, but the shape is plain enough: ensembles, long runs, parts that ask for warmth and quickness rather than for the near-silence of Precious. That may be the point. There was talk when *Precious* came out that a role so intense would trap her, and the steady work since is one answer to it. She has said, "I'm really, really interested in the job of acting. I can really care less about being famous," and the list of credits reads like someone who meant it. What we have not seen is another director asking her for the thing Daniels found: a face that gives away nothing while a voice gives away everything. Somebody should ask. The mirror scene suggests there is a good deal more where it came from. ## Biography Gabourey Sidibe is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the 2009 film *Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire*, playing the title character. Sidibe was born on 6 May 1983 in New York City and raised in Harlem. She had no previous professional acting experience when she auditioned for the role while studying psychology at college. Her performance in *Precious* earned nominations for the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. Subsequent credits include roles in the television series *American Horror Story* and films such as *Tower Heist* (2011), *White Bird in a Blizzard* (2014) and *Antebellum* (2020). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, cbsnews.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *Seven Psychopaths* (2012), Fi1m 72, as Sharice — [page](https://film.one/film/seven-psychopaths.md) - *Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire* (2009), Fi1m 72, as Precious — [page](https://film.one/film/precious-based-on-the-novel-push-by-sapphire.md) ## Complete filmography (30) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Be Happy* (2026), Director - *Give Me Back My Daughter* (2025), as Renee - *StuGo* (2025), series, as Francis (voice) - *All I Didn't Want for Christmas* (2022), as Emily Harris · Executive Producer - *Asking For It* (2022), as Rudy - *Santa Inc.* (2021), series, as Goldie (voice) - *American Horror Stories* (2021), series, as Jaslyn Taylor - *Antebellum* (2020), as Dawn - *Come As You Are* (2020), as Sam - *School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play* (2019), as Nana - *Hair Love* (2019), Associate Producer - *The Tale of Four* (2017), Director - *Brad Neely's Harg Nallin' Sclopio Peepio* (2016), series, as (voice) - *Grimsby* (2016), as Banu - *Gravy* (2015), as Winketta - *Difficult People* (2015), series, as Denise - *Empire* (2015), series, as Becky · Director - *Top Five* (2014), as Gabourey Sidibe - *Life Partners* (2014), as Jen - *White Bird in a Blizzard* (2014), as Beth - *BoJack Horseman* (2014), series, as Tamara (voice) — Fi1m 91, [page](https://film.one/tv/bojack-horseman.md) - *Seven Psychopaths* (2012), as Sharice — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/seven-psychopaths.md) - *Tower Heist* (2011), as Odessa Montero - *American Horror Story* (2011), series, as Queenie, Regina Ross - *Saturday Night Live: The Best of '09/'10* (2011), Actor - *Yelling To The Sky* (2011), as Latonya Williams - *The Big C* (2010), series, as Andrea Jackson - *Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire* (2009), as Precious — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/precious-based-on-the-novel-push-by-sapphire.md) - *American Dad!* (2005), series, as Gabourey Sidibe, Party Girl (voice) - *Rose Moon*, as Rose King · Executive Producer ## Gallery - ![Actress Gabourey Sidibe, director Victoria Mahoney and actress Yolonda Ross (l-r) at the premiere of the film "Yelling To The Sky" (2011)](https://film.one/media/person/100516/gallery-6c5ffc519c90.jpg) Actress Gabourey Sidibe, director Victoria Mahoney and actress Yolonda Ross (l-r) at the premiere of the film "Yelling To The Sky" (2011) — Siebbi, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/Gabourey_Sidibe%2C_Victoria_Mahoney_and_Yolonda_Ross_%28Berlin_Film_Festival_2011%29.jpg/1280px-Gabourey_Sidibe%2C_Victoria_Mahoney_and_Yolonda_Ross_%28Berlin_Film_Festival_2011%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Actress Gabourey Sidibe at the premiere of her film "Yelling To The Sky". (2011)](https://film.one/media/person/100516/gallery-c888d8c5de18.jpg) Actress Gabourey Sidibe at the premiere of her film "Yelling To The Sky". (2011) — Siebbi, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/Gabourey_Sidibe_%28Berlin_Film_Festival_2011%29.jpg/1280px-Gabourey_Sidibe_%28Berlin_Film_Festival_2011%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Actress Gabourey Sidibe at the premiere of her film "Yelling To The Sky" (2011)](https://film.one/media/person/100516/gallery-1298c6a131b8.jpg) Actress Gabourey Sidibe at the premiere of her film "Yelling To The Sky" (2011) — Siebbi, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/Gabourey_Sidibe_%28Berlin_Film_Festival_2011%29_2.jpg/1280px-Gabourey_Sidibe_%28Berlin_Film_Festival_2011%29_2.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Actress Gabourey Sidibe at 2010 CBS Summer Press Tour Party.](https://film.one/media/person/100516/gallery-8f72c61bbfb3.jpg) Actress Gabourey Sidibe at 2010 CBS Summer Press Tour Party. — Greg Hernandez, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Gabourey_Sidibe_2010.jpg/1280px-Gabourey_Sidibe_2010.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Gabourey Sidibe](https://film.one/media/person/100516/gallery-a8b038f468d5.jpg) Gabourey Sidibe — Image via TMDB - ![Gabourey Sidibe](https://film.one/media/person/100516/gallery-0c18febc0db5.jpg) Gabourey Sidibe — iDominick, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Gabourey_Sidibe_at_PaleyFest_2014_-_13491368805.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 2010: Best Actress (nominated), for *Precious* ### Other awards — 3 won - OkayAfrica 100 Women 2018: OkayAfrica 100 Women (won) - Independent Spirit Awards 2010: Best Female Lead (won), for *Precious* - NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture 2010: NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture (won), for *Precious* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/gabourey-sidibe