Angela Bassett Could Make TV History On '9-1-1' Series

Angela Bassett is poised to make history as the highest paid actress of color on television.

According to Deadline, Bassett is renegotiating her contract  for Fox’s flagship series 9-1-1.  The 62-year-old will earn “north of $450,000 an episode.” This could possibly be the highest salary for any current network television actor. Additionally, $450,000 could be the highest ever salary for an actress of color on a broadcast drama series.

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Harlem-born Angela Bassett began her career acting in Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson’s regional theater productions. She is best known for her strong matriarchal roles in Boyz N The Hood (1991), Malcolm X and the TV movie The Jacksons: An American Dream (both 1992). In 1993, she starred as Tina Turner in the biopic What’s Love Got To Do With It, and became the first African American woman to win a Best Actress Golden Globe Award in a Musical or Comedy. 

In 2011, Bassett returned to the small screen in ABC’s One Police Plaza and has also starred on Ryan’s Murphy American Horror Story: Coven. Ryan Murphy also created  9-1-1 and Bassett helped to develop.  

Bassett serves as an executive producer for 9-1-1, which returns for season five September 20 at 8 p.m. EST.