Best African American Movies & TV Shows

Shelby Coles (Halle Berry) is engaged to marry talented white jazz musician Meade Howell, but the pair face opposition from both Meade's family, who object to an inter-racial marriage, and Shelby's parents, who want her to marry a professional. As Shelby is afflicted by pre-marital doubts, handsome Lute McNeil arrives on the scene, determined to make Shelby his at any cost.

Eve is an American sitcom starring Eve, Jason Winston George, Ali Landry, Natalie Desselle-Reid, Brian Hooks and Sean Maguire. It aired on the UPN network from September 15, 2003 to May 11, 2006, with 66 episodes produced spanning 3 seasons. The series follows Shelly, a beautiful and intelligent woman of the new generation trying to navigate the exhilarating world of 21st century love, romance and career. The series was nominated in 2004 for Teen Choice Award for Choice Breakout TV Show and had seven nominations in major awards.

Muhammad Ali brings to life the iconic heavyweight boxing champion who became an inspiration to people everywhere.

Rising comics and singers are showcased in this long-running variety show from the Apollo Theater in New York City's Harlem neighborhood.

A social conscience thriller about a courageous Afro-Caribbean girl from Haiti, who is trapped inside a human-trafficking network in the United States. She chooses to risk her life in order to gain her freedom and expose an explosive conspiracy whereby unsuspecting illegal immigrants are routinely murdered in an elaborate, multi-million-dollar, life-insurance racket.

Cassie, the last remaining member of the original Gang of Roses, is sitting in a small Mexican jail holding the written code to a US military safe. It s here that she meets Collette (Eurika Pratts), a young gambler looking for her next con. Kate (Rocsi Diaz) attempts to break her out, and Cassie is killed. Upon their return, Kate and Collette meet up with outlaws Candi (Teyana Taylor) and Mimi (Claudia Jordan). After some lengthy planning, the four women head to the Mexican town of San Juevo and prepare for the robbery, which will take place in the town church. But unbeknownst to them, they are being followed by Lee (Gabriel Casseus) and his posse of bandits, looking to ambush the women before they can make their big score.

In 1948, Johns served as the outspoken spiritual leader of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Incensed at the racial injustice that pervaded the South, he was determined to fight for equality for all African Americans.

Nick Romano lives in a poor tenement building on the south side of Chicago with his well-meaning but drug-addicted mother, Nellie. She encourages him to pursue his piano-playing talent in hopes that it will bring him a better life. Nellie's neighbors, like the alcoholic ex-lawyer who secretly loves her, help her in keeping Nick away from Louie, the resident drug dealer. But a chance meeting between Nick and Louie could change things forever.

The Superstars of Extreme Championship Wrestling show off their hardcore skills and in-ring technical wizardry in this one-hour weekly television series.

Whoopi was an American situation comedy, starring Whoopi Goldberg. The series revolved around the events and people at her hotel, the Lamont Hotel, in New York City. The show aired on Tuesdays from September 9, 2003, on NBC to April 20, 2004.

Told from the points of view of both the Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives and their targets, the series captures a universe in which the national war on drugs has become a permanent, self-sustaining bureaucracy, and distinctions between good and evil are routinely obliterated.

Dr. Gregory House, a drug-addicted, unconventional, misanthropic medical genius, leads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey.

A multigenerational family saga centered around one woman who, having recently relocated and intent on revitalizing her marriage, finds herself going head to head with some of the most powerful and deceitful players in the city.

Los Angeles. 1983. A storm is coming and its name is crack. Set against the infancy of the crack cocaine epidemic and its ultimate radical impact on the culture as we know it, the story follows numerous characters on a violent collision course.

When the Harker Arts Academy drama club produces a play based on the silent horror film Nosferatu (1922), reality and fiction collide, and blood begins to spill.

A poor, elderly white woman living in a tenement in a black ghetto is befriended by a neighborhood boy, and the two of them form a mutually beneficial relationship: he provides her companionship and protection, and she becomes the mother he never had.

As soon as single dad Anthony moves back into his parents' home to provide a stable environment for his 8-year-old son, he immediately remembers why he left in the first place. His mother Flo is always understanding and supportive, but his cantankerous father Joe wants Anthony to abandon his acting hopes and take a "real job" working in the family beauty salon/barber shop. To complicate things, Anthony's old room is being rented out to a medical student, George, leaving Anthony alone in the garage. Torn between teaching his son about determination and providing for him, Anthony is about to put his dreams on hold. It takes his son Tuga to remind him that, aside from each other, their dreams are all they have.

Charlie is a sad sack of a man, working at a depressingly dull office job and stuck in a passionless engagement to a neurotic woman. One of the few bright spots in his life is his friend Mike, who seems to be living a life of carefree bohemianism.

Three ambitious women navigate the highly competitive world of professional sports.

After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters the Spider Society, a team of Spider-People charged with protecting the Multiverse’s very existence. But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must set out on his own to save those he loves most.

Struggling to find his place in the world while juggling school and family, Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales is unexpectedly bitten by a radioactive spider and develops unfathomable powers just like the one and only Spider-Man. While wrestling with the implications of his new abilities, Miles discovers a super collider created by the madman Wilson "Kingpin" Fisk, causing others from across the Spider-Verse to be inadvertently transported to his dimension.

A coming of age comedy following a diverse group of teenage friends as they confront the challenges of growing up in gritty inner-city Los Angeles.

A riveting police drama about the men and women of the Chicago Police Department's District 21 who put it all on the line to serve and protect their community. District 21 is made up of two distinctly different groups: the uniformed cops who patrol the beat and go head-to-head with the city's street crimes and the Intelligence Unit that combats the city's major offenses - organized crime, drug trafficking, high profile murders and beyond.

Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Sommerset researches each sin in an effort to get inside the killer's mind, while his novice partner, Mills, scoffs at his efforts to unravel the case.

Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two African-American men. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.

A group of high school students navigate love and friendships in a world of drugs, sex, trauma, and social media.

The Teen Titans are five heroes under one roof. Robin, Starfire, Raven, Cyborg, and Beast Boy live in a large tower in the shape of a T that they call Titan Tower. No secret identities. No school. Just superheroes being superheroes. They must go up against their arch nemesis, Slade, and his evil minions. What he really plans to do is unknown but one thing's for sure... he's an evil madman.

Craig and his friends, Kelsey and JP, venture out into a kid-controlled wilderness in the creek.

Living Single is an American television sitcom that aired for five seasons on the Fox network from August 22, 1993, to January 1, 1998. The show centered on the lives of six friends who share personal and professional experiences while living in a Brooklyn brownstone. Throughout its run, Living Single became one of the most popular African-American sitcoms of its era, ranking among the top five in African-American ratings in all five seasons. The series was produced by Yvette Lee Bowser's company, Sister Lee, in association with Warner Bros. Television. In contrast to the popularity of NBC's "Must See TV" on Thursday nights in the 1990s, many African American and Latino viewers flocked to Fox's Thursday night line-up of Martin, Living Single, and New York Undercover. In fact, these were the three highest-rated series among black households for the 1996–1997 season.

Forty years after the release of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller,’ the best-selling album of all-time, director Nelson George takes fans back in time to the making of a pop masterpiece, featuring never-before-seen footage and candid interviews.

A dance musical that explores the juxtaposition of several segments of 1980s life and society in New York: the ball culture world, the rise of the luxury Trump-era universe and the downtown social and literary scene.

A entertainment lawyer navigates the nefarious lives of her rich and famous clients.

A chronicle of the stirring relationship of one couple, with each episode spanning a single day. The narrative will unfold to reveal significant moments in a relationship that compel us to hold true to the ones we love, from the extraordinary to the everyday.

Tony Lip, a bouncer in 1962, is hired to drive pianist Don Shirley on a tour through the Deep South in the days when African Americans, forced to find alternate accommodations and services due to segregation laws below the Mason-Dixon Line, relied on a guide called The Negro Motorist Green Book.

When a rising high school football player from South Central L.A. is recruited to play for Beverly Hills High, the wins, losses and struggles of two families from vastly different worlds - Compton and Beverly Hills - begin to collide. Inspired by the life of pro football player Spencer Paysinger.

A single-camera ensemble comedy following the lives of an eclectic group of detectives in a New York precinct, including one slacker who is forced to shape up when he gets a new boss.

Presenting the tale of American founding father Alexander Hamilton, this filmed version of the original Broadway smash hit is the story of America then, told by America now.

Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson is an African-American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family's struggles with money and her desperate need for jobs; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating college to find out her childhood maid has mysteriously disappeared. These three stories intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help"; yet they are always kept at a certain distance because of racial lines.

Set in Chicago, the show follows the kid-friendly misadventures of two high-school friends who are always scheming and dreaming. Kenan, who works at a grocery store, constantly devises crazy plans to strike it rich, while orange-soda-loving buddy Kel is always dragged along for the ride despite his track record for messing things up.

A tribal priest returns from the dead to take his revenge on non-believers.

Half & Half is an American sitcom that aired on UPN from September 23, 2002, to May 15, 2006. The show focuses on the lives of two paternal half-sisters in their twenties who were estranged throughout their childhood, and are finally developing a close relationship. The series is set in San Francisco. It was the second-most-watched show on UPN's Monday night line-up and fourth overall on the network. The show was on The CW's first draft line-up in March 2006, but due to several circumstances—including The CW's contractual obligation to pick up Reba, the uncancelling of All of Us, and the pick-up of the Girlfriends spin-off The Game—Half & Half was left off the final Fall 2006 schedule and ended production. The series has aired in reruns on Global TV in Canada, Trouble in the UK and in local syndication in the United States. It also airs in the United States on TV One.

Five teens from Harlem become trapped in a nightmare when they're falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park.

Are You Afraid of the Dark? is a joint Canadian-American horror/fantasy-themed anthology television series. The original series was a joint production between the Canadian company Cinar and the American company Nickelodeon. The episode "The Tale of the Twisted Claw" was aired as a pilot on the evening of October 31, 1991 in the USA and in October 1990 in Canada. Are You Afraid of the Dark? was aired from August 15, 1992 to April 20, 1996 on Nickelodeon's SNICK. The series also aired on the Canadian television network YTV from October 30, 1990 until June 11, 2000. A revived series with new directors, writers, and cast was produced by Nickelodeon from 1999 to 2000 and also aired on SNICK. The sole member from the original lineup to return for the sixth and seventh seasons was Tucker, although Ross Hull returned for the concluding miniseries, which notably broke from the show's established format by blurring the line between story and "reality".

With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.

Raised in a poverty-stricken slum, a 16-year-old girl named Starr now attends a suburban prep school. After she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend, she's torn between her two very different worlds as she tries to speak her truth.

A night at the movies turns into a nightmare when Michael and his date are attacked by a horde of bloody-thirsty zombies.

Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful audition at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is transported to the You Seminar, a center in which souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Joe must enlist help from the other souls-in-training, like 22, a soul who has spent eons in the You Seminar, in order to get back to Earth.

Family Reunion follows a family of six who travel from Seattle, Washington to Columbus, Georgia for the McKellan Family Reunion and decide to stay to be closer to their family.

A sportscaster becomes a full-time dad when his ex-wife decides to accept a job out of the country and his teenage daughter, Breanna, moves in with him.

A pregnant woman's physically abusive husband demands that she get an abortion. Their world is full of sex, drugs, money, and power, with violence an ever-present threat. On the mean streets of Atlanta, the expectant mother finds that only spiritual awareness and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse can help her escape the madness. Dark Angels is a black action movie written, produced, and directed by David Wadley, featuring A.J. Johnson (Friday, Menace II Society). Dark Angels is available on multiple streaming services, including Prime Video and Tubi.