Biography - Danielle Brooks

Who is Danielle Brooks?

Danielle Brooks is an actress by profession and an American by nationality. She is well known for starring in Orange Is the New Black.

Danielle Brooks – Birth, Parents, Siblings

Danielle Brooks was born on September 17, 1989, in Augusta, Georgia, U.S.A., to a Christian family. Her father, Tunnel Brooks, was a deacon, while her mother, Larita Brooks, was a minister. She has a younger sibling - a brother named Donnie "D.J." Brooks, with whom she was raised in a closely-knit family.

Education, Ethnicity

For education, Danielle Brooks attended South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts & Humanities, studying there for the final two years of high school. After graduating from the selective arts high school, Danielle Brooks applied to the renowned Juilliard School. She was accepted into the school where she studied drama, graduating in 2011.

Her ethnicity is African-American.

Danielle Brooks – Boyfriend, Husband, Children, Divorce

In a 2017 interview, Danielle Brooks said that her dating life is not as good as her career is and that she is still single. Soon after, it seems that she has found love.

In February 2018, she introduced her boyfriend, a handsome mystery man, via Instagram. In one of the pictures, Brooke was smiling ear to ear as she leaned in for a kiss! Then followed a series of pictures of them out jet skiing.

Her boyfriend was later revealed to be Dennis Gelin. In July 2019, she announced via Instagram that she was pregnant with the couple's first child and gave birth to their daughter, Freeya Carel Gellin, on November 16, 2019. The couple got engaged on December 31, 2019, and the couple married on January 13, 2022.

There is no news of divorce surrounding the Brooks and her husband.

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Danielle Brooks – Career

Early Career

Danielle Brooks was introduced to acting from a young age. When she was just 6 years old, she began to play in the nativity play put on by her church. This hobby of hers gradually became her passion.

After graduating from the Juilliard School, Brooks soon landed roles in two theater productions, namely, Shakespeare Theatre Company's Servant of Two Masters, and Blacken the Bubble. She worked with the theatre until 2013.

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Films, TV Series

In the year 2013, she got the role of Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. The series is about a woman's prison and is based on  Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison. 

Initially, the character was intended to be a star in only two episodes. The writers decided to include Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson throughout the whole season. Danielle Brooks’ character was then written into the following seasons of the series as well. On the set, Danielle Brooks’ character Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson is best friends with Poussey, who is played by Samira Wiley. Wiley is, in fact, Brook’s real-life friend and has been since they met while students at Juilliard.

After her breakout role in Orange Is the New Black, she has starred in films such as I Dream Too Much (2015), The Angry Birds Movie (2016), The Day Shall Come (2019), The Color Purple (2023), and Oh. What. Fun. (2025). Moreover, she has portrayed characters in Girls (2014), Master of None (2015–2017), Project Runway All Stars 5 (2018), High Maintenance (2018), Elena of Avalor  (2018), and Peacemaker (2022-2025).

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Co-stars

On the set of Orange Is the New Black, Danielle Brooks has worked with Yael Stone, Natasha Lyonne, Kimiko Glenn, and Catherine Curtin.

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Danielle Brooks – Awards, Nominations

Danielle Brooks has engraved her name into several prestigious awards. She won three titles of Breakthrough Actress in the Young Hollywood Awards in 2013. Similarly, Brooks won Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2015 and 2016, while winning the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for her role as Sofia in The Color Purple.

The talented actress has also had a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations.

Danielle Brooks – Clothing store

Since Brooks is considered plus-size, she always struggled with finding the right clothes to wear.

Reflecting on an incident, Brooks recalled, “I remember being in a store by myself one time, and I was looking at a piece of clothing. Suddenly, a woman whom I didn't know came up to me and said, ‘You know you can't fit into that.’ I couldn't believe it. The real problem, though, is that plus-size women are so used to being isolated into a certain section of a store, and those are the only sections of clothes that they can wear. But that's unfair.”

So, when size-10-and-up brand Universal Standard approached Brooks to design clothes, she did not think twice. Danielle Brooks just took a step ahead.

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Danielle Brooks – Net worth, Salary

Danielle Brooks' net worth has been estimated at $1 Million, while the figure on her annual salary has not been shared with the public.

Danielle Brooks – Instagram, Twitter, Facebook

On social media handles including Instagram and Twitter, Danielle Brooks is active with millions of followers, but is absent from Facebook.

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