Camille Winbush

Born and raised in Los Angeles, multi-talented actress Camille Winbush practically grew up on television, scoring her first major role at the age of four on NBC's futuristic action series "Viper." The show crashed after two seasons, and Winbush moved on to recurring roles on the sitcom "Minor Adjustments" and on the long-running family drama "7th Heaven." She made her feature film debut with a tiny role in the Michelle Pfeiffer hit "Dangerous Minds," and appeared briefly in the Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie "Eraser," before making a solid impact in writer-director Jim Jarmusch's critically acclaimed "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai"; Winbush played a bookish little girl who befriends the title assassin (Forest Whitaker). Winbush's self-assured performance opposite the Oscar-winning actor garnered excellent reviews. It also helped her land her most well-known role, on the sitcom "The Bernie Mac Show," as smart-mouthed Vanessa Thomkins, eldest of three siblings taken in by their irascible stand-up comedian uncle. The FOX show aired for five seasons, earning Winbush a 2006 Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Series, and three consecutive NAACP Image Awards as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. In 2008, the actress joined the cast of "The Secret Life of the American Teenager."