Divas On Screen With the 2010 Academy Awards approaching, NPR's Tell Me More presents a five-part series focusing on five revolutionary African-American actresses. Commentator Mia Mask, author of the book Divas On Screen, explains how legendary performers Dorothy Dandridge, Pam Grier, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey and Halle Berry have evolved the image of black women in Tinseltown and on the big screen.

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Divas On Screen

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Actress Holly Berry receives an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the film Monster's Ball in 2001. Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images hide caption

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Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Halle Berry: The Many Faces Of A Diva

March 5, 2010 • In 2001, Halle Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Monster's Ball, directed by Marc Forster. The award made her the first African-American woman to win an Oscar in this category. Berry is both a biracial beauty in an integrated era and a performer who has demonstrated her ability across a range of characters.

Halle Berry: The Many Faces Of A Diva

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Oprah Winfrey (right) and Danny Glover star in the 1998 film Beloved. Touchstone Pictures/Getty Images hide caption

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Oprah: The Billionaire Everywoman

March 4, 2010 • Oprah Winfrey is the most powerful woman in film and television. In the early years of her success, some critics said she evoked the plantation stereotype of the black mammy. But her media mogul status has silenced those critics.

Oprah: The Billionaire Everywoman

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Whoopi Goldberg's Unflinching Rise To The Top

Whoopi Goldberg gives her opening monologue as host of the 74th annual Academy Awards in March 2002. Kevork Djansezian/AP hide caption

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Kevork Djansezian/AP

Whoopi Goldberg's Unflinching Rise To The Top

March 3, 2010 • Whoopi Goldberg is Hollywood's unruly woman. She is sometimes described as too fat, too funny, too noisy and too rebellious. In Broadway performances, Hollywood pictures, independent movies and on TV, she challenges social hierarchies, crosses through racial boundaries and subverts conventional authority.

Whoopi Goldberg's Unflinching Rise To The Top

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Pam Grier: Part Foxy, Part Feminist, All Sexy

March 2, 2010 • Pam Grier is one of the most popular and well-known film stars from the 1970s. Most people know Grier from her successful star vehicles like Coffy and Foxy Brown. But she was already a proven box office draw by the time she started making the pictures commonly referred to as Blaxploitation movies. Her characters fused feminist sensibilities, Black Nationalist radicalism and vigilante justice.

Pam Grier: Part Foxy, Part Feminist, All Sexy

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Dorothy Dandridge: Hollywood Trailblazer, But With A Price

March 1, 2010 • Tell Me More looks back at some of the most prominent African-American actresses of all times, beginning with Dorothy Dandridge. The 1950s diva challenged conventional beauty and was the first African-American to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

Dorothy Dandridge: Hollywood Trailblazer, But With A Price

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