The Great Debaters has Kimberly Elise in a starring role.
 Her performance helped her land a role the next year in Beloved alongside Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover, a horror-drama film based on Toni Morrison's 1987 novel of the same name, directed by Jonathan Demme
== Early life ==Elise was born as Kimberly Elise Trammel in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the daughter of Erma Jean (ne Johnson), an elementary school teacher, and Marvin Trammel, who owns an executive search firm

