Unfortunately, horror works tend to suffer from a lack of inclusivity. Like so many other industries, the film industry has historically othered or excluded people of color. It will take years to reverse decades of racist practices and misrepresentation in movies and TV, but more and more Black creative voices are breaking down boundaries and pushing back.
When horror fans think of scream queens, white actresses like Jamie Lee Curtis or Emma Roberts likely come to mind. However, quite a few Black scream queens are driving the genre toward a much-needed reckoning, one that involves reimagining tropes, tackling white supremacy, and showing that scary stories aren't just for white audiences.
Lupita Nyong'o
Mexican-born Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong'o is far more than a horror star: she's an Oscar-winning performer whose talent spans genres. That being said, Nyong'o has made waves in recent years showcasing her skills in horror features.
Her most iconic horror role remains the dual role of Adelaide Wilson and her doppelganger Red in Jordan Peele's Us. However, she also starred in another horror gem in 2019: the zombie comedy Little Monsters.
Angela Bassett
Angela Bassett has been acting for decades, and her expansive filmography includes both TV and film. The native New Yorker made herself a horror icon when she began appearing in FX's anthology series American Horror Story in 2013.
The Golden Globe and Emmy winner first appeared in the Coven season as Voodoo queen Marie Laveau, but she returned for the Freak Show, Hotel, Roanoke, and Apocalypse seasons. Long before that, Bassett flexed her horror muscles alongside Eddie Murphy in Wes Craven's cult 1995 classic Vampire in Brooklyn.
Jurnee Smollett
Jurnee Smollett is part of the talented ensemble cast reimaging Lovecraftian horror in HBO's Lovecraft Country. She tackles both supernatural entities and white supremacy as Leti Lewis, a photographer who works with Jonathan Majors's character Tic to unravel the mystery of his father's disappearance.
Smollett started acting as a child in shows like Full House, and her breakout role in film came with the 1997 horror movie Eve's Bayou. Smollett remains close to her horror roots as her career continues to prosper, showing up in everything from True Blood to the Twilight Zone revival.
Nikyatu Jusu
Nikyatu Jusu is an up-and-coming Sierra Leonean-American independent filmmaker who has been making waves in the past decade in film festival circuits. Jusu, a professor at George Mason University, released her first horror venture in 2019, a short called Suicide by Sunlight.
The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, flips vampire tropes on their heads. It focuses on a Black vampire whose melanin protects her from sunlight.
Octavia Spencer
Horror isn't Octavia Spencer's only focus, but she really knows how to generate scares when she does dabble in the genre. Case in point: 2019's Ma, which stars Spencer as a lonely middle-aged woman who develops an unhealthy relationship with a group of teenagers in her small Ohio town.
The Oscar-winning Spencer has also popped up over the years in everything from Rob Zombie's Halloween II to Robert Zemeckis's recent dark fantasy The Witches. She's set to co-star in Michael Pearce's upcoming cross-genre thriller Invasion.
Betty Gabriel
Betty Gabriel gives the performance of a lifetime as the Armitage family's housekeeper Georgina in Jordan Peele's Get Out. Georgina, a previous victim of Alison Williams's Rose Armitage, was lured to the family's estate so the Armitage grandmother Marianne could have her consciousness transplanted into Georgina's much younger body.
Before Get Out, Gabriel co-starred in 2016's The Purge: Election Year. She can also be seen in Unfriended: Dark Web and the anthology horror series 12 Deadly Days.
Wunmi Mosaku
In addition to standing out in Lovecraft Country as Leti's musically-inclined sister Ruby Baptiste in Lovecraft Country, Nigerian-born British actress Wunmi Mosaku starred in what many critics contend is the best horror movie of 2020: His House. The film, released on Netflix, sees Mosaku playing a South Sudanese refugee who flees to England, where a witch known as an apeth follows her and her partner Bol (Sope Dirisu).
Mosaku has been nominated for numerous awards for her work in Lovecraft Country, including a Screen Actor's Guild Award and a Critic's Choice Television Award. Her talents are also on display in British horror series like In The Flesh and Black Mirror.
Carmen Ejogo
British actress Carmen Ejogo is all over TV and film. While she's best known for starring in the third season of True Detective and the Fantastic Beasts fantasy films, Ejogo maintains some serious horror street cred.
In addition to a lead role in 2014's The Purge: Anarchy, Ejogo co-stars in the dark and psychologically unnerving It Comes at Night. As if that's not enough, she also played Karine Oram in Alien: Covenant.
Nia DaCosta
Nia DaCosta became a household name among horror fans when it was announced she would helm the forthcoming revival of Candyman, set to be released later this year. Co-written with Jordan Peele & Win Rosenfeld, Candyman is marketed as a "spiritual sequel" to the original 1992 film.
DaCosta's strong first feature film, Little Woods, is a crime thriller starring Lily James and Tessa Thompson. While she's now been tapped to direct Captain Marvel 2, there's no doubt DaCosta will return to her scary roots.
Meosha Bean
Meosha Bean has yet to break into the mainstream, but it's not for a lack of ability or skills. This underground filmmaker and actress has dozens of horror shorts under her belt, as well as acting credits in indie flicks.
Bean maintains her own YouTube channel, where she shares information about her creative projects while reviewing recent horror works. She's also featured in the 2019 Shudder documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror.