Cover Girl: Nine Times Taraji P. Henson Slayed Us in Print

The Empire star is a bonafide stunner.

Slay! - The recent issue of Essence proves that Oscar-nominee and Empire star Taraji P. Henson is flawless. To celebrate her new cover, here’s a walk down memory lane of all the times she slayed us with her beauty and inspiring words. By Kellee Terrell (Photo: Essence Magazine, November 2015)

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Slay! - The recent issue of Essence proves that Oscar-nominee and Empire star Taraji P. Henson is flawless. To celebrate her new cover, here’s a walk down memory lane of all the times she slayed us with her beauty and inspiring words. By Kellee Terrell (Photo: Essence Magazine, November 2015)

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Slay!

Curly Cues - The actress was bare-faced and real in the July 2015 issue of Allure. She sounded off on her work ethic and how she did hair in college for $20 a head to make ends meet. “I come from a family of hard workers…Oh, yeah, I knew how to hustle and make money. We used to do wet sets…. I bought a hooded dryer, and I had my box of rollers. I could have gone to jail; I had no license whatsoever. But it was just my friends. They were like, ‘Girl, hook me up.’” (Photo: Allure Magazine, July 2015)

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Curly Cues

Photo By Allure Magazine, July 2015

Vintage Pin-Up - This sexy vintage pin-up look for the Feb/March 2015 issue of Uptown was one of Henson’s best covers yet. She addressed the media stereotypes of Black women and how she nuances her roles, especially that of Cookie. “I played a lot of characters that could’ve been borderline stereotypical women, but my job as an actress is to make the audience understand and empathize with the people. She [Cookie] wears me out, but I know this woman. I’ve done my research inside and out.” (Photo: Uptown Magazine, February/March 2015)

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Vintage Pin-Up

Homies for Life - This old-school cover from the May 2009 Ebony issue shows how deep and long Henson and Viola Davis’s friendship has been. That year, the two were both nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture at the Academy Awards. “We looked right at each other, we connected,” says Henson. “We had to have that moment, just for each other, to let each other know, ‘You know what? It’s still all good.’” (Photo: Ebony Magazine, May 2009)

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Homies for Life

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Girl on Fire - In the March issue of Emmy, Henson and Terrence Howard open up about their hot on-screen chemistry. Henson also opens up about her 2009 Oscar nod and how her late father told her it was just the beginning. "Time went on, and I'm getting older. I ain't no spring chicken. I'm thinking, 'Maybe the Oscar [nod] was it.' Then [Empire] comes along, and it blows up, and it's like, 'Okay, Daddy, this is what you were talking about.' He saw this moment right here." (Photo: Emmy Magazine, July 2015)

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Girl on Fire

Hot Mama - This 2014 cover was pre-Empire success, where the actress talked about being killed off her CBS show Person of Interest, her Think Like a Man fame and the battle for Black women in the industry. “How many times have you seen Amy Adams in a period piece with a great actor like Meryl Streep or Christian Bale? And look at Jennifer Lawrence! Hits out the wazoo! How come we’re not nominated every year? Because the scripts and the roles aren’t there. It’s not rocket science.” (Photo: Upscale Magazine, April 2014)

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Hot Mama

Cookie Monster - Having worked together on 2006’s Hustle and Flow, Henson and Howard have that bond and closeness that transcends to this 2015 Entertainment Weekly cover. Henson talks about how she didn’t want this role if Howard couldn’t be her leading man. "I just knew it had to be him," she said. "When I read the script, I was like, 'This is that deep love that you can't explain, that you just see, and Terrence and I have that for each other." (Photo: Entertainment Weekly Magazine, March 2015)

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Cookie Monster