An NAACP Image Award is an accolade presented by the American National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to honor outstanding people of color in film, television, music, and literature.

Similar to other awards, like the Oscars and the Grammys, the 35 categories of the Image Awards are voted on by the award organization's members (that is, NAACP members). Honorary awards (similar to the Academy Honorary Award) have also been included, such as the President's Award, the Chairman's Award, Entertainer of the Year and The Image Award Hall of Fame.

The award ceremony was first presented in 1967 and was first nationally televised in 1974 on the Fox Network. The first live broadcast of the event, also on the Fox Network, occurred in 2007 for its 38th edition (up until 2007, the ceremony had been broadcast with tape delay) and the annual ceremonies usually take place in or around the Los Angeles, United States (US) area, in February or early March.

Wayne Brady and Holly Robinson Peete hosted the 42nd annual NAACP Image Awards on March 4, 2011.

Anthony Howard "Tony" Goldwyn (born May 20, 1960) is an American actor and director. He portrayed the villain Carl Bruner in Ghost, Colonel Bagley in The Last Samurai, and the voice of the title character of the Disney animated Tarzan. He stars in the ABC drama Scandal, as Fitzgerald Grant III, President of the United States.

Goldwyn was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actress Jennifer Howard and film producer Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. Goldwyn's paternal grandparents were mogul Samuel Goldwyn and actress Frances Howard, while his maternal grandparents were playwright Sidney Howard and actress Clare Eames. Goldwyn attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts (where he received his B.F.A), and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Goldwyn's best remembered role is most likely that of Carl Bruner, friend-turned-betrayer of Patrick Swayze's character Sam Wheat in Ghost. He is also well known for his turn on the comedy series, Designing Women in which he played a young interior designer named Kendall Dobbs who was HIV positive, and asked the women of Sugarbakers to design his funeral. In the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, Goldwyn played astronaut Neil Armstrong, commander of Apollo 11. He also provided the voice of the title character from 1999 animated feature film, Tarzan, produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. He reprised the role in the video games Disney's Tarzan Untamed and Kingdom Hearts. He also had a recurring role on the NBC-Universal drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Frank Goren, brother of lead character Robert Goren, played by Vincent D'Onofrio.

Kerry Washington (born January 31, 1977) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Ray Charles's wife, Della Bea Robinson, in the film Ray (2004), as Idi Amin's wife Kay in The Last King of Scotland, and as Alicia Masters, love interest of Ben Grimm/The Thing in the live-action Fantastic Four films of 2005 and 2007. She has also starred in the critically acclaimed independent films Our Song and The Dead Girl, and is the lead actress in the 2012 ABC drama Scandal, a Shonda Rhimes series where Washington plays Olivia Pope, a former crisis management expert to the President.

Washington was born in the The Bronx, New York City, the daughter of Valerie, a professor and educational consultant, and a real estate broker father. She performed with the Tada theater teen group and attended the Spence School in Manhattan, graduating in 1994.^{[citation needed]} She attended The George Washington University, graduating in 1998.^{[citation needed]} She also studied at Michael Howard Studios^{[citation needed]} in New York City.

Eric Marlon Bishop (born December 13, 1967), professionally known as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, singer-songwriter, rapper, stand-up comedian, and talk radio host who began playing the piano when he was five years old. As an actor, his work in the film Ray earned him the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a musical/comedy. He is also a Grammy Award winning musician, producing three albums which have charted highly on the Billboard 200: Unpredictable, which topped the chart, Best Night of My Life and Intuition.

Born in Terrell, Texas, Foxx was raised by his mother's adoptive parents. He performed in high school and was awarded with a scholarship to United States International University. In his twenties, Foxx began performing stand-up at comedy clubs, and eventually joined the cast of In Living Color in 1991; this exposure helped him land film roles and star in his own sitcom, The Jamie Foxx Show. He released his debut album, Peep This, in 1994, but he did not gain significant musical success until 2004 when he was featured in Twista's song "Slow Jamz". Also in 2004, Foxx played critically acclaimed roles in the films Collateral and Ray. He released his second album, Unpredictable, in 2005, which was helped by his collaboration on Kanye West's number-one single "Gold Digger". His third album Intuition was released in 2008 and was anchored by the single "Blame It". Foxx released his fourth studio album, Best Night of My Life, in 2010.

Lauren Elizabeth Potter (born May 10, 1990) is an American actress, best known for her role as Becky Jackson on the hit show Glee.

Potter was born May 10, 1990 in Inland Empire, California. She graduated from Polytechnic High School in Riverside, California, and is studying at Irvine Valley College in Irvine, California, as of Fall 2011. Like her character on Glee, Lauren has Down syndrome.

Potter portrays the character Becky Jackson, a cheerleader with Down syndrome, on the TV show Glee. Cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) takes a special interest in Becky in part because Sue's older sister, Jean, also has Down syndrome.

In November 2011, President Barack Obama appointed Potter to the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, where she will advise the White House on issues related to that population.