
When it comes to who my favorite actresses are, Nia Long is definitely in that number. I’ve admired her from a young age, as seen by the characters I’ve listed in the title. She always seems to bring a sense of realness to her characters that make them easy to watch and relatable. Of course, when I was younger I just thought she was super pretty and I basically wanted to be her when I got older. I also admired the level of confidence that each of her characters seemed to posses.



“I want to go to college before I get married and there ain’t no guarantee that I’m gonna marry you!”
First up is Brandi from Boyz N The Hood, a true classic and although her role in this film was small, she certainly made an impact. The first impression that I got from Brandi was that she didn’t play that with anybody, especially Tre. For much of the film, she stuck to her guns about waiting until marriage and was very serious about going to college. At the end of the film, it was revealed that she enrolled at Spelman College so I guess you can see how sis influenced me.





“All these niggas around here might be scared of you but I’m not.”
Next up is Debbie from Friday. Okay,







“To the woman who helped me reach my level.
She knows who she is.”
Third and probably my favorite Nia Long character of all time of Nina Mosely from Love Jones. From the moment that Nina rebuffed Darius for embarrassing her after “A Blues for Nina,” I fell in love with the character. Like Brandi, she didn’t play with him and she kept






Harper: “Jordan Armstrong. She’s already running things, ain’t she?”
Murch: “You should not be surprised. She’s the only one more driven than you are.”
Last but certainly not least is Jordan Armstrong from The Best Man. I loved this character growing up so much literally because she was everything I wanted to be: fine and successful in her own right. Not only was she working in media but she was also super blunt and honest with Harper, which I loved. When Harper tried to blame for all the things that happened to him near the end of the film, she was quick to put him in check and open his eyes to see that the issues in life were popping up because he himself aired his dirty laundry for the world to see. Not only was she honest about that but she was also very straightforward when it came to inviting Harper over in the first place and I admired that then for so many reasons and I still do. One gets what she goes after, period!
Now as you can see there’s one common thing that each of Nia’s characters has in common and that’s confidence. I loved it when I was younger and I still do. Seeing a black woman have the courage to say what she wants when she wants it and doesn’t care about who she’s saying it to