Irma P. Hall (born June 3, 1935) is an African American actress who has appeared in numerous films and television shows since the 1970s. She is best known for playing matriarchal figures in the films A Family Thing, Soul Food and The Ladykillers.
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Source: Wikipedia

Irma P. Hall (born June 3, 1935) is an African American actress who has appeared in numerous films and television shows since the 1970s. She is best known for playing matriarchal figures in the films A Family Thing, Soul Food and The Ladykillers.

Career [edit]
Hall's first acting role was in an independent film called Book of Numbers at the age of 36. Hall had been a teacher of languages for many years in Dallas, Texas when actor/director Raymond St. Jacques hired her as interim publicist for "Book of Numbers." St Jacques saw her performing at a poetry reading. He liked her so much he offered her a role in his film on the spot. Hall discovered a love for acting and soon co-founded a repertory theatre in Dallas.
Hall's personality and age made her a natural to be cast as a middle-aged, strong authority figure. She worked steadily in films and TV throughout the 1980s. But it was not until her role as the loving Aunt T. in 1996's A Family Thing that critics and audiences began to take notice of her talents. She won the Chicago Film Critics Association Award and the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role and the success of that film helped launch Hall's career as a major supporting actor in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Sizable roles in major films such as Nothing to Lose and Steel followed. Hall then landed the role as Big Mama Joseph in the film Soul Food. The film was a hit at the box office, prompting a television spinoff, Soul Food: The Series, in which Hall reprised her role.
She landed another acclaimed role when she was cast in the 2004 remake of The Ladykillers. She won a special Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and an Image Award for her performance. Hall will also have a principal role in the upcoming Rel Dowdell film, "Changing the Game," to be shot in Philadelphia in Spring 2010.
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