She began her acting career in 1990, with a guest appearance on the short-lived sitcom "True Colors", and subsequently starred in the television series "A Different World" (1991–1993). She made her feature film debut in "Menace II Society" (1993). Her breakthrough came opposite Eddie Murphy in "The Nutty Professor" (1996), and she has since starred in more than 20 feature films, including "Set It Off" (1996), "Scream 2" (1997), "Ali" (2001), "The Matrix Reloaded" (2003), "The Matrix Revolutions" (2003), "Collateral" (2004), the "Madagascar" films (2005–2012), "Magic Mike XXL" (2015), "Bad Moms" (2016), "Girls Trip" (2017), and "Angel Has Fallen" (2019). On television, she has starred in "Hawthorne" (2009–2011) and "Gotham" (2014–2016).