10 black celebrities celebrities who found success later in life.

Is it too late to succeed when you are over 30, 40 or 50? Should we give up believing in our dreams as we get older? No, I don’t think so.
In our society, once you have passed the symbolic age of 30, many people think that it is now too late to realise their dreams and succeed in their field. For those who persist in fighting for what they believe in, those around them ask them to be sensible and resign themselves to following society. Judged to be too idealistic, too dreamy and over the moon, they have to justify themselves all the time. And when they apply, they are constantly told that they are too old and will never make it..
If you find yourself in this situation, don’t give up on your dreams. It is never too late to succeed in life. Man proposes, God disposes. Nothing is set in stone. Fortunately, there are many examples of personalities who have persisted and succeeded at the age of 30, 40 or more than 50. Just because you have children or a family does not mean that you have to stop what drives you and the dreams that make you tick.

Morgan Freeman (52 years old)

• Occupation: actor
• Success: at age 52

From the age of 9, Morgan Freeman performed in school plays. After various jobs as a US Air Force mechanic and a sworn secretary, he decided in 1964 to become an actor. But for many years, he struggled to break through and was limited to playing small roles on television. Despite his age, he never gave up on his dreams. He continued to take on roles and perfect his acting. Thanks to the popular character of Easy Reader for 6 years in the series The Electric Company, his perseverance paid off and he became known to the American public. At the age of 52, with his role in the film Driving Miss Daisy, his talent was finally recognised and he became an iconic actor in American cinema..

Samuel L. Jackson (46 years old)

• Occupation: Actor
• Success: at age 46

When you’re young, you’re always looking for your bearings. Samuel L. Jackson, when he was at Morehouse College in Atlanta, originally wanted to study architecture. But his passion for theatre and art took over and he graduated in 1972 with a degree in drama. He acted in plays and managed to get small film roles with director Spike Lee. But it wasn’t until he played Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction at the age of 42, as a philosopher-killer, that he finally became a household name..

Danny Glover (42 years old)

• Occupation: Actor
• Success: at age 42

While attending San Francisco College, Danny Glover became interested in acting. In 1979, he made his film debut alongside Clint Eastwood in Don Siegel’s Escape from Alcatraz and went on to play several roles on the small screen. He made his public debut in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple.
In 1987, Danny Glover found success two years later thanks to his shock duo with Mel Gibson in L’Arme Fatale, at the age of 42. A role he would reprise in the three sequels, in between shooting many forgettable films.

Leslie Jones (47 years old)

• Occupation: Actress
• Success: at age 47

When she was at university, Leslie Jones was very hesitant about her career direction. She wanted to study law, but changed options several times, trying accounting and computer science, and eventually graduated with a degree in communications. With her tall stature, she also hesitated to become a basketball player.
But when she won the university’s acting competition, she decided to become an actress. She took on a series of television roles, but found it difficult to break into the industry and received a lot of criticism. Very discouraged, she decided to stop her career for 3 years.
Driven by the will to succeed, despite being over 40, she pursued her dream and auditioned for Saturday Night Live in 2013, and there her career finally took off. She finally made it to the show’s 40th season, along with Chris Pratt and Bill Hader, and landed a regular spot on October 25, 2014 during the episode hosted by Jim Carrey. At 47, she finally breaks through and becomes the oldest person to become a cast member on the show.
 
Phylicia Rashad (36 years old)

• Métier : actrice.Occupation: actress.
• Success: at age 36

Early in her career, Phylicia Rashad was known as a Broadway actress. But she became famous and recognized by the general public after playing the role of Clair Huxtable, a lawyer with 5 children, in the Cosby Show at the age of 35. Over the course of 8 seasons, audiences became enthralled with the daily lives of this African-American family living in New York City, whose father is a gynecologist and mother a lawyer..

Viola Davis (36 years old)

• Occupation: actress.
• Succès : à l’âge de 36 ans

Having lived in great poverty as a child, Viola Davis’ daily life is difficult. She lived in a dilapidated house with boards falling off the walls, shoddy plumbing, and rats roaming the house.
Viola explains:

 “I was the kind of poor person who knew straight away that she had even less than everyone else around her. Our environment, our house reflected our income.”

This period of her life gave her the strength to fight tooth and nail to get out of poverty and become the woman she wanted to be. She pursued her dreams, appearing in TV series and films.
As a result of all her difficulties, Viola Davis started her film career very late. She began shooting her first film at the age of 31. But it was at the age of 36 that she was recognised by her peers and the general public, thanks to her roles in Tate Taylor’s The Colour of Desire. In 2015, she became the first black woman to win the Emmy for Best Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Annalise Keating in How to Get Away with Murder.
In all simplicity, she confides:

“I can’t believe how much God has blessed me. “

Shonda Rhimes (35 years old)

• Occupation: American director, producer and screenwriter.
• Success: at age 35

Since she was a little girl, Shonda Rhimes has loved writing stories. She wrote for the college newspaper and eventually graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts with an MFA. Despite her great degree and dreams, she found herself unemployed. To make ends meet, she took on a variety of jobs as an office administrator and counselor at a centre that helps the homeless and mentally ill.
Persevering, she did not give up on her dream and worked as a documentary research director and made a short film, Blossoms and Veils, with Jada Pinkett-Smith and Jeffrey Wright. She also wrote singer Britney Spears’ first film Crossroads, which grossed over $60 million worldwide, despite critical acclaim. And she continues to write for various series.
At the age of 35, she found success with the series Grey’s Anatomy, which focuses on the surgical staff at the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital (later called Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital) in Seattle, Washington with Ellen Pompeo, who plays Meredith Gray. Shonda Rhymes says that it was her volunteer work at the hospital when she was in high school that inspired her to write about hospital environments.
She went on to become a successful TV personality, producing such shows as Private Practice, Scandal, The Catch and How to Get Away with Murder.
 
Kerry Washington (35 years old)

• Occupation: actress.
• Success: at age 35

Daughter of a teacher and a real estate broker, Kerry Washington graduated from Phi Beta Kappa in 1998 with a double major in anthropology and sociology from George Washington University. With a passion for film, she has acted in a variety of roles on television.
She pursued her dream by starring in Spike Lee’s She Hate Me (2014), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Little Man (2006), I Think I Love My Wife (2007) and, as the wife of 1970s Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, in the British historical drama The Last King of Scotland (2006).
Her breakthrough came with her role as Olivia Pope in Shonda Rhimes’ drama series Scandal. At the age of 35, she was a huge success.

 
Oprah Winfrey (32 years old)

• Métier : journaliste, productrice de télévision, actrice, femme d’affaires, etc.
• Succès : à l’âge de 32 ans

As a child, Oprah Winfrey suffered abuse and poverty. Despite these obstacles, she has always fought to succeed in her life. As a child, she enjoyed interviewing her corn doll, and the crows on the fence at her family’s house. Encouraged by her grandmother to speak in public, she was drawn to the world of journalism. A hard worker, she worked at various radio and television stations. But at the age of 23, she was fired from her job as a journalist.
Determined, she never gave up. Her efforts were rewarded. At the age of 32, she had considerable success with her talk show. A few years later, she became one of the most iconic faces on television and one of the richest women in the world.

Lupita Nyango’o (30 years old)

• Occupation: actress.
• Success: at age 30

Passionate about theatre, Lupita took an interest in drama at school. She obtained her International Baccalaureate and continued her studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA, where she graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA).
During this period, she worked as a production assistant on The Constant Gardener (2005), as a post-production trainee on The Namesake (2006) and as an assistant to the set designer on Where God Left His Shoes (2007)
In 2010, she returned to school and in 2012 completed her MFA at the Yale School of Drama at Yale University. During this time, she took the opportunity to work on her acting by participating in various plays produced by the school at the Yale Repertory Theatre.
In 2012, at the age of 30, thanks to Steve McQueen’s film 12 years a slave, she became a global star. Her portrayal of Patsey, a slave in the Confederate States of America in the 19th century, earned her 19 awards in 2013 and 2014. At 30, she became the 15th actress to win an Oscar in her film debut. The success continued and she became the muse and new face of the Lancôme brand.

If you look at these celebrities, you can see that it’s never too late to succeed in life. So if you are over 30 and feel trapped in a life that is not for you. Remember that good things are hard-won over time!