Here's what Madam C.J. Walker and other characters in Self Made looked like in real life. The Netflix series boasts an impressive cast, including Octavia Spencer, Blair Underwood, and Tiffany Haddish, portraying an array of real-life characters.
A four-episode, limited-run series, Self Made tells the true story of Madam C.J. Walker, who is noted by Guinness World Records as America's first self-made, female, African-American millionaire. Based on the book On Her Own Ground, by Walker's great-great-granddaughter A'Lelia Bundles, the story begins in 1908 and follows Madam Walker's rise from washwoman to an unbelievably successful mogul of the haircare industry.
Due to the time period and status of the primary people spotlighted in Self Made, there's limited picture evidence of many of the show's characters. Using everything that's publically available about Madam C.J. Walker and those around her, here's what Self Made looked like in real life.
Octavia Spencer As Madam C.J. Walker
Octavia Spencer takes the lead in Self Made. An Academy Award winner for her role in The Help, Spencer has also been nominated for her work in The Shape of Water and Hidden Figures. Recently, she gained a cult following for playing the title role in the horror film Ma. She's also been seen in Luce, Fruitvale Station, and Snowpiercer.
Spencer is feisty and determined in the role of Madam C.J. Walker, who was born as Sarah Breedlove in Louisiana in 1867. In the show, Sarah defiantly changes her name (borrowing from her then husband's moniker of C.J. Walker) during a confrontation with her main rival.
The real Madam Walker had a tumultuous life. Born just after slavery ended, she was orphaned by the age of seven, married by fourteen, a mother at seventeen, and a widow at nineteen. She married her second husband in 1894, but it didn't last. It wasn't until she was thirty-seven that she began her haircare business, and this where Self Made's story begins.
What follows is Madam Walker's rise from product salesperson, to inventor of her own "hair grower," to home salon owner, to factory owner, and finally to queen of an outright empire that made her one of America's greatest entrepreneurs, female, African-American, or otherwise. And, as Self Made reveals, she did steal the original formula for her hair grower from her rival.
Madam Walker died in 1919 of kidney failure. Tenacious and with a sparkle in her eyes, Octavia Spencer has captured her spirit and style.
Tiffany Haddish As Lelia
Playing Lelia, Madam Walker's daughter, is Tiffany Haddish. An "it" girl if ever there was one, Haddish started as a standup comedian before landing a breakout role in Girls Trip. Since then she's been seemingly everywhere, with a long list of roles on both TV and in the movies. She starred alongside Kevin Hart in Night School in theaters, and with Tracy Morgan on the small screen's The Last O.G. Earlier this year, she was seen with Rose Byrne and Salma Hayek in Like A Boss, a comedy that also looks at female entrepreneurs running a beauty care company.
In real life, the girl born Lelia McWilliams would go on to change her name to A'Lelia Walker. She was married three times, once to John Robinson, who is represented in Self Made as not good enough for Madam Walker's daughter. After that marriage failed, she married two more times. She was a patron of the arts and opened a cultural salon called the Dark Tower, as is highlighted in the series. In 1919, she became president of the company that her mother founded, and died in 1931 at the age of 46.
In Self Made she is a free spirit, a hair product testing guinea pig, and ultimately her mother's right-hand man. Full of surprises, she marries on a whim and then dances gleefully when she and her husband decide to divorce. She is also portrayed as having lesbian leanings, developing a close relationship with a character named Esther. However, there is no evidence that this relationship really happened, and Esther is a fictional character.
Carmen Ejogo as Addie Monroe
Self Made's villain Addie is played with zealous fun by Carmen Ajogo. The British singer and actor started in the entertainment industry hosting a children's show in the UK, but American audiences will recognize her from roles in movies such as Selma, Alien: Covenant, and the Fantastic Beasts series. She also appeared alongside Mahershala Ali in HBO's True Detective.
Addie Monroe is inspired by the real person Annie Turnbo Malone, who also was a pioneer in African-American haircare and a self-made millionaire. In Self Made, she is a mean and conniving foil to Madam Walker. Originally shown to be Madam Walker's friend, employer, and mentor, the two have a falling out early on. Addie insults her greatly for not having the right look to sell her haircare products, inspiring Walker to break out on her own. Throughout the series, Addie then plots to take down Walker at every turn, following her from city to city and poaching her top saleswomen.
The actual Annie Turnbo Malone was indeed a genius businesswoman in her own right. She had a mind for chemistry and created her own hair grower. Madam Walker was one of Annie's employees, and she did steal the formula as alleged in Self Made. By 1918, she had established her own "beauty college." However, she does not appear to be intently focused on destroying her rival. How could she? By 1920, her own empire was worth an estimated $14 million. However, her fortunes dwindled as she aged. She died in 1957 at the age of 87.
Kevin Carroll As Ransom
Ransom is Madam Walker's attorney in Self Made. Kevin Carroll plays this cool and collected character. The actor is best known for his TV roles, including HBO's The Leftovers and the FOX/Netflix series Lucifer, in which he played Sinnerman in season 3.
In Self Made, Ransom is a stoic and reliable individual. he runs the business operations for Madam Walker's hair care company. He brought into Madam Walker's business a flashy numbers man named Sweetness (Bill Bellamy), who meets a terrible ending. Ransom also helps facilitate Madam Walker's divorce from C.J. Walker.
Madam Walker's real attorney was Freeman Ransom, a graduate of Columbia University law school. As Self Made puts forth, he was not only her lawyer, but also the general manager of her manufacturing company. His business acumen is responsible for building the company into the success it became. Regarding Sweetness, this was a character invented exclusively for the show. He did not really exist.
Blair Underwood As C.J. Walker
Blair Underwood is C.J. Walker, Madam Walker's husband in Self Made. Underwood has a long acting resume. He first rose to fame on TV's legal drama L.A. Law. Since then, audiences have seen him in many other shows, such as Quantico, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Dear White People. He has a Grammy Award for spoken word for his work on An Inconvenient Truth and has been twice nominated for Golden Globes.
Self Made portrays C.J. as jealous of his wife's success. As her empire grows, he feels pushed aside. He is angered when she fails to share the advertisements he created with a retailer at a meeting to get her products on store shelves. Eventually, he starts a relationship with Dora, one of his wife's salespeople. When Madam Walker discovers this affair, she demands a divorce, but then puts off signing the papers.
Unfortunately, a photographic record of the real C.J. Walker could not be located. Charles Joseph Walker was Madam Walker's third husband, and they married in 1906 just as her business was beginning. He did, in fact, work in advertising. It is also true that he had an affair with a woman named Dora, whom he went onto marry. However, Madam Walker did nothing to delay her divorce from C.J. The couple separated swiftly in 1912, and C.J died in 1926.
Garrett Morris As Cleophus & J. Alphonse Nicholson As John Robinson
Rounding out the expansive Self Made cast are Garrett Morris and J. Alphonse Nicholson. Photographs for their real-life counterparts were not available.
Garrett Morris is Cleophus, C.J. Walker's father. Morris is probably best known as one of the original "Not Ready For Primetime Players" from Saturday Night Live's earliest years. He's also been seen on TV comedies 2 Broke Girls, The Jamie Foxx Show, and Martin. J. Alphonse Nicholson is Self Made's John Robinson, Lelia's husband. He has appeared previously in Mr. Robot and Luke Cage.
While Self Made's Cleophus and John are both based on real people, photographs of them were not available, and their true stories are not widely known.