From Tampa Bay Forward, the Power Broker's 20th anniversary edition

Tampa Bay rivals most regions for its quotient of homegrown talent. Yet we may have an unusual cadre of Black Americans with roots and ties to the region, who have reached the top of their fields and left an indelible imprint on the 21st century. From igniting global and national trends, and earning ultimate honors in sports, to defining new genres in the arts, and leading the competition in the corporate sector, here are 12 luminaries and celebrities with connections to the region.  THE ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 

Angela Bassett | Actress

Raised in St. Petersburg 

Bassett is a two-time Oscar nominee, Emmy winner, and multiple Golden Globe winner widely regarded as one of the finest actresses of her generation. Her defining 21st-century moment came in 2022, when her role as Queen Ramonda in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” — a film that grossed $859 million worldwide — made her the first actor ever nominated for an Academy Award for a Marvel movie, on top of a Golden Globe win. She's since become one of the highest-paid women of color in broadcast television, reportedly earning north of $450,000 per episode on the Fox/ABC drama “9-1-1.”

Kenny Leon | Broadway Director

Raised in St. Petersburg

Leon is an award-winning director whose work has shaped modern Broadway and helped bring Black theater to the mainstream. His signature honor, the Tony Award for “A Raisin in the Sun,” came in 2014. Additional nominations for “Fences,” “A Soldier's Play,” and “Purlie Victorious” round out his 21^st-century honors. Just this July, Leon was elected chair of the American Theatre Wing's board of trustees — the organization behind the Tony Awards itself — putting a St. Pete native at the helm of one of the industry's most influential institutions

Doechii | Musician

Raised in Tampa

Doechii is an award-winning 27-year old musician, born and raised in Tampa. Her 2025 Grammy for Best Rap Album made her only the third solo woman ever to win the category. She was named Billboard's 2025 Woman of the Year, and landed on Forbes' 30 Under 30 Class of 2026. Still early in her career, Doechii is already one of the most popular figures to come from the region in a generation. She is a graduate of Howard W. Blake High School of Performing Arts, class of 2016.  CORPORATE SECTOR Bridgette Heller | Executive & Philanthropist

Raised in St. Petersburg

Heller is one of only a handful of Black Americans from the region to reach the top of the Fortune 100 — with executive posts at Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and most recently, as executive vice president and president of Nutricia, a division of Danone. Now retired, Heller sits on the boards of Novartis, DexCom, Aramark, and Newman's Own, which channels 100% of profits to charity — $560 million to date. Brian Lamb | Executive

Attended College and Built Career in Tampa

Lamb was a full-scholarship basketball player at the University of South Florida and earned his bachelor's and MBA there. He later chaired the board of USF. After 14 years at Fifth Third Bank, including as executive vice president and CFO of the Tampa Bay market, he left the region in 2020 to join JPMorgan Chase as its first global head of diversity, equity & inclusion, overseeing a $30 billion racial equity pledge. Lamb now leads its Northeast middle-market banking division. He was inducted into the Tampa Bay Business Hall of Fame in 2016.  Coretha Rushing | Executive Consultant

Re-located to St. Petersburg in 2019 Rushing is a veteran Fortune 500 human resources executive who spent her career as a senior executive at some of America's most recognizable companies. She was senior vice president and chief human resources officer at Equifax for 14 years, following a decade as senior vice president of Global HR at Coca-Cola, with earlier roles at Pizza Hut and IBM. Since relocating to St. Petersburg, she has launched her own executive coaching and leadership development consultancy, mentoring the region's next generation of leaders.  THE SCIENCES

Dr. Sylvester James Gates, Jr. | Theoretical Physicist

Born in Tampa  A pioneer of supersymmetry, supergravity and superstring theory, Gates co-authored “Superspace,” the field's first comprehensive textbook. In 2013 he received the National Medal of Science from U.S. president Barack Obama and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences — becoming the first African American theoretical physicist recognized in the Academy's 150-year history. He later served as president of the American Physical Society, taught as a distinguished university professor at the University of Maryland. He now directs the Brown Theoretical Physics Center.  PROFESSIONAL SPORTS

Winky Wright | Boxer

Adopted St. Petersburg as Home  Wright, who trained at the St. Pete Boxing Club from age 15, became the last man to hold the undisputed light middleweight championship. He also holds a World Boxing Council middleweight belt, and in 2005 was ranked by The Ring as the second-best pound-for-pound fighter alive. His 2018 International Boxing Hall of Fame induction cemented his sport-defining legacy. Wright retired from the profession in 2012 and still resides in St. Petersburg. 

Ray Lewis | NFL Hall of Famer

Bartow-Born; Raised in Lakeland

Lewis won Super Bowl XXXV MVP honors in January 2001, a second championship in 2013, and Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement in 2018. Then, he built a second career as an ESPN and Fox Sports analyst while launching the Power 52 Foundation as co-founder in 2015, in response to unrest following Freddie Gray's death. The Foundation’s mission is “to break the cycle of poverty, unemployment, underemployment, and incarceration in underserved urban communities,” according to the organization’s website. Lewis attended Lakeland’s Kathleen Senior High School, where he was an All-American linebacker. He was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2018. 

Fred McGriff | MLB Hall of Famer

Raised in Tampa 

McGriff earned over $65 million in career MLB salary and capped his playing days with a 1995 World Series championship. In 2023, the Contemporary Era Committee voted him unanimously into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the sport's ultimate honor. He was inducted into the Tampa Bay Rays Hall of Fame in September 2024 — the fifth person in franchise history to receive that honor. MEDIA

Eric Deggans | Media Critic and Author

Long-Time St. Petersburg Resident After 18 years at the Tampa Bay Times, Deggans became NPR's first-ever full-time TV critic, a post he held for 12 years. Today he is NPR’s critic-at-large and the Knight Chair in Journalism and Media Ethics at Washington and Lee University. In 2019, he became the first Black chair of the Peabody Awards board of jurors. He has continued giving back locally as an instructor at Eckerd College, the University of Tampa, and the Poynter Institute.

Keith Boykin | Author, Media Figure

Attended High School in Clearwater Boykin is a CNN political commentator and New York Times bestselling author who served in the Clinton White House. A Harvard Law graduate who studied alongside then student Barack Obama, Boykin helped organize the first-ever meeting between a sitting president (Clinton) and LGBTQ leaders. He has since built a media career spanning six books — including the New York Times bestseller “Beyond the Down Low” and the American Library Association Stonewall Award winner “For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Still Not Enough.” Tampa Bay Forward was sponsored by Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg, Pinellas Community Foundation and 40 corporate, institutional and business supporters. Share Your News

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