Photography: Irvin Rivera
Origins:
Tiffany Boone has always found healing and inspiration in the arts. The Baltimore native’s father died when she was just 3 years old, and she says that “losing myself in characters has allowed me to work through some of my issues and explore different sides of myself.” She enrolled in dance and theater programs early (“I did my first play when I was 8,” she says) and found a beacon in the Cosby Show spinoff A Different World. “I saw what my future could be as a Black woman in America,” she says. “Jasmine Guy’s incredible performance really motivated me. I felt like, if she can do it, I can do it.”
On the Hunt:
Boone, now 33, moved west to attend the California Institute of the Arts, and spent the 2010s taking small film and TV roles.
This year saw her take a step forward by traveling back in time. In Al Pacino’s acclaimed Amazon series Hunters she portrays Roxy Jones, a Foxy Brown–esque member of a group of vigilantes that chases down former Nazis in 1970s New York City. “It was really cool to play a character who was inspired by blaxploitation films but also make her more human than the genre allowed at that time,” Boone says.
Out of This World:
This month, Boone takes flight in Netflix’s The Midnight Sky, directed by George Clooney, who also stars as a scientist trying to warn a space mission not to return to earth after a mysterious catastrophe leaves the planet uninhabitable.
Boone plays Maya, a rookie astronaut, and working with a seasoned cast that included David Oyelowo and Felicity Jones, she could relate to the character, “who’s more anxious than the rest of them but at the same time is savoring every moment.” As for the film’s message, she hopes that “people watch this and say, ‘Gosh, we have to take care of each other. We have to take care of the earth.’”
Finding Her Voice:
In 2021, Boone will star in Nine Perfect Strangers, a Hulu adaptation of the novel of the same name by Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty, which is set in an Australian wellness retreat run by a mysterious guru (played by Nicole Kidman).
Beyond that role, Boone says her goals aren’t “character-based or story-based,” but that she’s looking for parts “that make people think, that show a complexity—specifically for Black women.”
The actress, who quit the Showtime series The Chi in 2018 after making harassment allegations against one of her costars, says she hopes to launch her own production company to “create really safe, wonderful work environments.” She adds, “I’ve learned that vulnerability is a strength, and that I can help people by sharing more of my story.”
