After first gaining on-screen recognition in the late ’90s, Kerry Washington has spent decades shaping complex, conversation-starting roles across film and television — from her poignant portrayal of Broomhilda in Django Unchained to her A-list-defining performance as Olivia Pope in Scandal. This year, the actress-producer returns with the Apple TV thriller Imperfect Women, continuing her mission to champion bold, character-driven stories that challenge the status quo.

By Will Harris

“Nobody’s perfect.”

It’s an oft-utilized phrase whenever someone has made an error, but it’s a concept that’s being fully embraced by Kerry Washington’s new series, Imperfect Women. The former Scandal star is one of the key players in the Apple TV series, along with Elisabeth Moss, Kate Mara, Joel Kinnaman, and Corey Stoll, but Washington is also doing double-duty as one of the show’s executive producers.

Mind you, this is far from the first time Washington has done such a thing; she’s got her own production company — Simpson Street — and she’s already served as EP for projects like Reasonable Doubt, UnPrisoned, and Little Fires Everywhere. As Forbes wrote in a profile of the company in January 2025, “[Simpson Street] has become a force in the entertainment industry by tackling complex social issues and championing narratives that mainstream studios often sidestep.”

Fortunately for Washington’s fans, she frequently stars in the projects that she executive produces, as is the case with Imperfect Women, based on the novel by Araminta Hall. Per the official Apple TV press release, the series “examines a crime that shatters the lives of three women in a decades-long friendship. The unconventional thriller explores guilt and retribution, love and betrayal, and the compromises we make that irrevocably alter our lives. As the investigation unfolds, so does the truth about how even the closest friendships may not be what they seem.”

“I’m not a risk-averse artist, and I think that has really afforded me tremendous opportunities,” Washington told Essence earlier this year. “I’m not intimidated by characters or storylines or themes that are controversial.”

This is decidedly evident in the work that Washington has done throughout her career, particularly her two mainstream breakthrough roles, both of which came in 2012: Broomhilda “Hildi” von Shaft in Quentin Tarantino’s neo-Western action-drama Django Unchained and Olivia Pope in ABC’s juicy political drama Scandal. (The latter, the brainchild of showrunner-creator virtuoso Shonda Rhimes, was a massive success, nabbing dozens of notable industry awards over seven seasons.)

“I don’t gravitate to political work,” she assured The Film Experience in 2012. “I had just as much artistic gratification making Little Man as Last King of Scotland. But just the act of being a woman and a person of color who brings full three-dimensional humanity to their characters, those things can be interpreted as political because it’s a new way of telling stories in this country — in the world.”

Born in the Bronx in 1977, Washington made her TV debut at just 17 years old in a 1994 ABC Afterschool Special titled “Magical Make-Over,” which she followed with a recurring role on the PBS educational series Standard Deviants. It would take a few more years, however, for her to make her film debut in 2000’s Our Song, co-starring alongside Melissa Martinez and Anna Simpson as members of a high school marching band. As proof of Washington’s skill as an actress, she was able to pull off playing a 15-year-old when she was, in fact, 22.

“Jim McKay, our director, that was the one thing he was concerned about,” Washington recalled to Spliced Wire. “I remember before my final callback I had a telephone conversation with him. He asked me to call his house, and this was my first film and I was, like, ‘This big director wants me to call him at home!’ I was so terrified! But he said, “You’re a phenomenal actress, but I’m just a little worried about the age stuff.” Because of the kind of person I am, immediately I was like, “A challenge! I’m gonna do it!”

Washington successfully bounced between TV and film throughout the 2000s, making appearances in episodes of NYPD Blue, Law & Order, The Guardian, and Psych, along with multi-episode arcs on 100 Centre Street and Boston Legal. Film-wise, she was all over the place, appearing in everything from two Fantastic Four films (as the blind sculptress Alicia Masters) to a Wayans Brothers comedy (Little Man) and a film about murderous dictator Idi Amin (The Last King of Scotland). But as mentioned, it was the one-two punch of Django Unchained and Scandal that really changed her career path in a big way.

“Before Scandal, I really thought of myself as what we call a character actor, you know, where I would kind of, like, disappear into different roles,” Washington said during a recent appearance on the weekday morning radio show Big Boy’s Neighborhood. “And people never really connected — I mean, Black people did! — but other people didn’t really connect it like the girl from Ray was the same girl from The Last King of Scotland, was the same girl from Save the Last Dance. The characters were like their own being. Scandal changed that.”

Indeed, Washington was so successful in the role of Olivia Pope that she became the first African-American woman to be nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in almost two decades. She stuck with the show for its entire seven-season run, during which time she didn’t do much in the way of film, but after its conclusion in 2018, she returned to splitting her time between the big and small screens, starring in and executive-producing 2024’s The Six Triple-Eight and 2025’s Shadow Force.

“Just working with Kerry, not only as an actress but also being the producer of the film [left a lasting impression],” Washington’s Shadow Force co-star, Natalia Reyes, told Film Updates. “Having her with her kids and being a mother and being the producer and being the lead and doing all the things she does in her world is just amazing.”

After Scandal, Washington starred in 2020’s Little Fires Everywhere (opposite Reese Witherspoon) and 2023’s UnPrisoned, also serving as an executive producer on both. As she observed in a recent interview with The Guardian, it’s the decision by so many actresses to become producers that has led to such an influx in the number of strong, complex female roles.

“We’re not sitting at home waiting to be invited to the party,” Washington said. “We’re throwing our own parties and our parties center us. That’s part of why there are more of these stories. It’s not by any means equitable. But it’s a lot better.”