Where did you first get introduced to Niecy Nash-Betts? In the movies, she had an early role in Boys on the Side (1995), as “Woman at Diner,” to then getting a role in Selma (2014) as civil rights activist Richie Jean Jackson. But these roles are far and few between. The movies haven’t given that special something that Nash-Betts finds on TV. So maybe if the big screen is where you saw her first, it’s the small screen where you keep finding her. On HBO, she’s done Reno 911! and Getting On. More recently, she’s unstoppable. In 2018, she got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She’s a repeat Emmy nominee. And why? Nash-Betts excels in playing broadly distinct women. She can do comic relief, be a badass boss, or a mix of all in one.
She’s done horror-comedy. No, not in any Scream installment, but seeing Courteney Cox and Niecy butt heads is an energy the franchise could use. The next best thing is her sharing scenes with horror icon Jamie Lee Curtis in Scream Queens (2015-2016), where Nash-Betts plays Denise Hemphill. Even while Denise is more supporting than a main player, especially in the second and last season before cancellation, she’s a blast at every moment. Miss Hemphill is always on the hunt for the slasher, be it the Red Devil or the Green Meanie, even if she isn’t catching on to the right suspect. There’s a switch the actress has to commit to, playing a horny security guard turned police chief, turned housemother, turned FBI agent.
She can be bumbling, she can also be intelligent. She role-plays with her boo as the cowboy lovers of Brokeback Mountain (2005) for a strange, steamy night. Niecy Nash-Betts takes the material and keeps on surprising, providing the laughs and a sense of authority. From early on, her line delivery is spot on. “Shondell!” she screams, at her very dead security guard partner, “Why you got a knife in yo throat?!” The logic is free fall in this universe, the outrageous happening aplenty. Denise Hemphill, and Nash-Bett’s acting, takes it on with ease.
In Claws We See Niecy Nash-Betts Shine as a Complex Character
Onto the dark comedy-crime drama Claws (2017-2021), Nash-Betts has a starring role as Desna Simms, a manicurist with exquisite acrylic talons who deals with shady folks. That’s because she uses her Floridian salon for money laundering with the Dixie Mafia. On the matter of “exquisite acrylic talons,” they are a true art form per episode. They won’t poke your eye out if you handle them the wrong way. They will gouge your eye out like daggers or--like the series’ namesake, claws. Morgan Dixon, key nail artist, and a team of fellow artists did their part to add such detail to the characters' nails, it tells a story of their own. For as extravagant and complicated as the nails are, so too are the characters. Beware of older women. Butterscotch candies may not be the only thing in their purse, if at all, but an automatic weapon will surely be. For an interview with NPR, Nash-Betts talked about, “Playing these women who are very forward and aggressive sexually. They are unapologetic in their behavior and their womanness.” Desna and the girls are, “All seeking to claw their way out from underneath some or all of these men--in our underworld.”
Take Niecy’s Desna, who can be sexy, exhausted, determined, sweet, and vicious. This being an ensemble, she gets great scene partners. On the softer side, Desna lives with her autistic brother, Dean (Harold Perrineau). While Desna tries to be the sibling and parent, they grow to take care of one another on equal ground. At the salon, her girls all factor into the criminal activities. This is Desna’s family and there isn’t anything she wouldn't do for them. The villains she comes up against, push our main gal into finding her strengths. After being used by flamboyant mob boss Uncle Daddy (Dean Norris) too many damn times, Desna rises to a level of power she never thought she could have. “Thank you for underestimating me. That shit taught me a lot,” she tells him. She grows into becoming a dangerous opponent.
When They See Us Shows Niecy Nash-Betts Tackling Emotional Drama
Denise and Desna are two very different female characters, although Niecy Nash-Betts isn’t getting herself stuck in repetition. But creating a character is in stark contrast to portraying a real person. Selma isn’t the only time she’s done so. In When They See Us, she’s Delores Wise, mother to one of the Central Park Five. The limited Netflix series is poignant, focusing on the terrible racism and injustice the titular youths faced. It also humanizes them and their families for a richer exploration beyond headlines. For Delores, she struggles with her emotions as her son Korey (Jharrel Jerome) is wrongfully tried and convicted as an adult. Visiting him takes a toll. The travel is long, she doesn’t have the available time for frequent trips. Nor does she have extra cash to help him out. In a blistering memory, Kevin recalls how he got separated from his sister when Delores couldn’t accept her older child Marci (Isis King) for being transgender. When a tragedy happens, Delores’ true feelings emerge for a heartbreaking moment of clarity.
Talking to Collider, Nash-Betts explained her own thoughts on dealing with the intense scene. Delores was a mother in fear, and “she did not know how to properly communicate that fear and vulnerability, so she masked it with anger and frustration.” It’s a scene that hurts, but she, like the other actors, understands the responsibility and sensitivity of playing these people. At one point, Korey reaches over to make physical contact with his mom during a visit and is taken away by the guards. Delores struggles to keep up with him until he’s out of sight, straining her voice to be heard: “They can’t break you, Korey!” The performance is raw and unflinching, and it wasn’t the last time she entered the true crime genre.
Nash-Betts Is the True Star of Dahmer
Niecy Nash-Betts provides the same kind of responsibility and sensitivity in Dahmer -- Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022). Which is a tricky job to pull off. The first half of the show veers too much around the killer. It isn’t until the second half, the victims, family, and others affected get their due. On the latter is Glenda Cleveland, a woman who lives next to Dahmer and knows something bad is happening. But what can she do? Her concerns are ignored by the police. She makes frequent calls to 911, from a number of instances anyone would be rightfully alarmed by. Power tools are used at all hours of the night. Screams and sounds of fighting are heard in shared vents. From the same vents, smells enter and reek in her apartment. For too long, Glenda lives next to a monster that she knows is capable of atrocities.
Glenda’s story is infuriating. She forces herself to “calm down” to not agitate cops, the few she does encounter. She has to collect herself to not be too pissed at co-workers who are eager to gossip about Dahmer. In the safe hands of Nash-Betts, the performance is grounded. It brings to life a woman who makes who cares for others, who has to live with the fact her calls for alarm were entirely correct, yet couldn’t save the young men and boys by the hands of the killer. Glenda gets nearly an hour to herself in Episode 7, reliving a never-ending nightmare where she experienced actual things go bump in the night. In a featurette, Nash-Betts explained how she wanted, “People to know Glenda Cleveland was special. That was a special woman, to continue on, and on, and on, in an effort to get someone to do something. She deserved way more than a little cheesy plaque in the bottom of a social hall somewhere.”
Niecy Nash-Betts Shines in Television, but She Should Be in Film Too
Among these select roles, you can add police procedural too. Like Claws, The Rookie: Feds is a starring vehicle for Niecy, playing into the comedy and drama she can pull off. Simone Clark is the oldest FBI recruit, an ex-high school guidance counselor who used her time to dive into abnormal psychology and advanced driving skills while teaching Driver’s Ed. It follows in the path of The Rookie, and who can follow up on the charisma of Nathan Fillion as a lead? Leave that to Niecy. She got a backdoor pilot in Season 4 of The Rookie for a spinoff.
Simone is a Black woman in law enforcement and that is a main issue tackled. She wants to bring about good change, putting her at odds with her activist father Cutty (Frankie R. Faison), who was wrongfully incarcerated in the past. The Bureau goes by set rules and conservative methods to their work. Simone is here to shake that up big time. The way she drifts her vehicle in a test scenario, makes one wonder: why the hell hasn’t she been invited into the Fast and Furious franchise? Nash-Betts’ real-life queer sexuality is made a part of Simone’s life. This all comes together to enhance a character that shifts away from the usually white, usually straight men that take on the lead of the genre. And it gives more Niecy for her old and new fans to tune to each week.
The actress’ career isn’t limited to these five shows, not by a long shot. But how they form a consecutive path and use Niecy Nash-Betts’ talents is remarkable and a joy to watch. The big screen has given substantial parts but not nearly in the way the small screen has. The diverse range and collection of characters on her belt, sells her as a powerhouse performer. Before you finish a rewatch or a first-time watch of Scream Queens, maybe Claws, you should brace for the next project she has lined up. With the rapid-fire way Niecy Nash-Betts is collecting roles on the small screen, the movies better catch up.