Regina Lee Hall (born December 12, 1970) is an American actress. She gained prominence for her portrayal of Brenda Meeks in the comedy-horror Scary Movie film series. She has worked in film and television. In 2018, Hall became the first African-American to win the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film Support the Girls.
Hall made her film debut in The Best Man (1999) and reprised her role in its sequel The Best Man Holiday (2014). Her film credits include Love & Basketball (2000), Think Like a Man (2012) and its sequel Think Like a Man Too (2014), Girls Trip (2017), The Hate U Give (2018), and One Battle After Another (2025). On television, she has starred in the comedy-drama series Ally McBeal (2001–2002), NBC police procedural Law & Order: LA (2010–2011), the comedy series Black Monday (2019–2021), and appeared as Ninny in Issa Rae's Insecure (2017).
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Early life
Hall's father Odie Hall was a contractor and electrician, her mother Ruby a teacher. After graduating from Immaculata High School, Hall enrolled at Fordham University in the Bronx, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in communications in 1992. She enrolled at New York University, where she earned a master's degree in journalism in 1997. Reflecting on college, Hall said: "I loved being a student. I could've gone to school until I was 75 years old as long as somebody would've paid my rent. I would've been a professional student."
She wanted a career with impact and envisioned a career in writing or journalism, but Hall's first semester of graduate school changed drastically when her father died of a stroke. She began a career in the entertainment industry, starting off with a guest appearance on Sadat X's 1996 album Wild Cowboys on the track, "The Interview".
Career
In 1997, Hall appeared in her first television commercial at the age of 26. Her television career began with a role on the soap opera Loving, and guest appearances on the Fox police drama New York Undercover. She played Candy in the 1999 film The Best Man. Hall reflected: "It was my very first movie. I met Sanaa Lathan on it, and we did Love and Basketball together, which was my second film. And then, at that point, I was visiting L.A. to stay and it led to a third film and a fourth film. And it was really a big deal because I'd never been on a set before."
Hall gained more recognition with her role in the comedy-horror-spoof Scary Movie (and the sequels Scary Movie 2, Scary Movie 3, and Scary Movie 4) portraying the sex-crazed Brenda Meeks, and the TV movie Disappearing Acts. The Scary Movie films are some of her best known roles. In 2001, Hall landed the role of Coretta Lipp on the prime-time drama Ally McBeal, which was originally a recurring role over several episodes but was made a main character in the fifth season of the show. A year later, she starred in the action-drama Paid in Full, a film directed by Charles Stone III. She has appeared in leading roles in films such as Malibu's Most Wanted, King's Ransom and The Honeymooners.
She appeared in the film Law Abiding Citizen in 2009. She had a role in the 2010 Danneel Harris and Arielle Kebbel film Mardi Gras. From its fall 2010 debut until a series overhaul in January 2011, Regina Hall portrayed Deputy District Attorney Evelyn Price on Law & Order: LA.
In 2012, she portrayed Candace Hall in Steve Harvey's movie Think Like a Man, a romantic comedy based on his book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. Hall reprised her role as Candace Sparks in The Best Man Holiday in 2013. She believed the characters had evolved from the first film. Hall felt The Best Man Holiday was different from any sequel she had ever done before since it was not "immediate" and it had been fourteen years since the release of the original. Hall felt the first film had "the joy of the wedding" and in the sequel "they come together for the holidays, but it's deeper than that. This one's definitely different, but we still laughed. There was so much laughter behind the scenes." Hall joked about how all of the male members of the cast were married while all of the women were not, stating that Morris Chestnut was happily married while walking around "with his shirt off!"
Personal life
Around 2004, Hall's mother was diagnosed with scleroderma, a rare autoimmune disease.
"When my mom was diagnosed, I didn't know much about the condition. But Dana Delany, who is an actress and now a friend of mine, put me in touch with Bob Saget. Bob had made a television movie about scleroderma years ago because his sister had died from it. At the time, they did not know what scleroderma was. Bob had a group called the Scleroderma Research Foundation, so I donated to that and my mother even went to the doctor Bob had suggested, who happened to be over at Johns Hopkins."
Hall announced in November 2010 that she would be writing for Ability.
In 2010, when she was 40, Hall unsuccessfully tried to become a Catholic nun after a bad break-up, having previously wanted to become one at the age of 14. In the former case, she was refused for being too old, as the cut-off age was 39 for that order.
In 2014, she signed as an ambassador for Elizabeth Taylor's White Diamonds.
