Meagan Monique Good[1] (born August 8, 1981)[2] is an American actress and model. She first gained critical attention for her role in the film Eve's Bayou (1997) prior to landing the role of Nina in the Nickelodeon sitcom Cousin Skeeter (1998–2001). Good received further prominence after starring in the films Deliver Us from Eva (2003), Roll Bounce (2005) and Stomp the Yard (2007).
Good was born on August 8, 1981[2] in the Panorama City neighborhood of Los Angeles. Her mother, Tyra Wardlow-Doyle, worked as Good's manager into her teens, and her father, Leondis "Leon" Good, is an LAPD police officer.[3][4][5] Good was raised in Canyon Country (now known as Santa Clarita), California. She has three siblings, including older sister and fellow actress La'Myia Good.[6] She began her acting career around the age of four.[7]
According to Good, she grew up "super nerdy, super skinny, buckteeth, big ole afro and yet I had a sense of confidence about myself, like, 'they just don't get it yet.'"[8] She has stated that she did not have any role models until early adulthood, when she began admiring actress Charlize Theron.[9]
Career
Childhood
In the early stages of her career, Good worked as an extra on television shows such as Doogie Howser, M.D. and Amen.[7] When she was 13, Good was cast in her first film, the 1995 comedy Friday.[3] She first gained critical recognition for her performance as the troubled teen Cisely Batiste in Kasi Lemmons' 1997 film Eve's Bayou; she received two award nominations, including her first NAACP Image Award nomination.
Adulthood
From 1998 to 2001, Good appeared as Nina on Nickelodeon's TV show Cousin Skeeter. During this time, she landed small roles in the films 3 Strikes and House Party 4: Down to the Last Minute. Good also appeared in many music videos, by artists such as 50 Cent, (21 Questions), Imajin, Isyss (of which Good's sister La'Myia Good was a member), Lil' Johnny, Memphis Bleek, Tyrese, and Will Smith. After taking on small film and television roles for the next few years, Good began to transition into more mature roles in the early 2000s. Good believes she was able to move into adult roles due to playing characters several years younger than her.[9]
In 2003, a major year for Good, she landed roles in the action-drama Biker Boyz and the romantic-comedy Deliver Us from Eva, which helped her transition from child to adult actress. She also appeared as the character Vanessa for one season of My Wife and Kids, before being replaced by another actor.[10] In 2004, Good starred alongside Jordana Brewster, Sara Foster, and Jill Ritchie in the action film D.E.B.S., and received a Best Actress nomination at the 2005 Black Movie Awards. She also had small roles in the teen dance film You Got Served, and Lance "Un" Rivera's directorial debut, The Cookout.
In 2005, Good co-starred in the horror film Venom, as well as the well-received neo noir film Brick. She played opposite rapper/actor Bow Wow in Malcolm D. Lee's Roll Bounce. In 2006, Good played the role of Coco, which she felt was her first true lead actress role, in the urban action-drama Waist Deep.[7] Good also voiced a character for the video game Scarface: The World Is Yours that same year.[11] The following year, Good landed a role in the dance movie Stomp the Yard, starring with Ne-Yo and childhood and personal
friend Columbus Short.[3] In 2008, Good appeared in the horror film One Missed Call as an ill-fated college student, Shelley Baum. She appeared as an angry trophy wife in the Mike Myers comedy The Love Guru, and in the latter half of the year, she was one of the victims/game players in Saw V. She starred in 2009's The Unborn with Gary Oldman and Odette Yustman.
Good in 2019
In 2010, Good started her own production company, Freedom Bridge Entertainment, with Marlon Olivera and fellow actors Tamara Bass and Ty Hodges.[12][13] She was part of the ensemble cast in 2012's Think Like a Man, a movie based on Steve Harvey's 2009 book Act like a Lady, Think like a Man. In 2013, Good starred in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. Good returned to television from January to March 2013, starring in Deception after being contacted by her agents about the series while leaving a hair salon. According to the actress, she sat in her car "and cried for 30-minutes like a nerd, by myself."[14]
The dress was controversial also because Good was presenting the BET Award for Best Gospel Artist. According to Christine Thomasos of The Christian Post, Good has a history of defending her stylistic choices of presenting herself as a "sexy Christian". She had said earlier that year:
there is a classy way to do everything and there is nothing wrong with being sexy or having sex appeal and I think that I am definitely going to be someone who is boldly going to go out to the masses and be someone who say, 'Look! Women its okay' ...[17][18][19]
Good responded on Instagram, expressing sadness that judgment had been passed on her, her character and her then-husband DeVon Franklin over what she wore to the ceremony. She said she picked the dress because she liked it and tried to express her individuality in her dress.[18][20]
In 2014, Good reprised her role for Think Like a Man Too, the sequel to Think Like a Man. Good stated she "had a really good time" while filming the sequel in Las Vegas after initially being nervous "because there's so much energy that only Vegas can give."[21] She later co-starred with Larenz Tate and Lance Gross in the 2017 Netflix film Deuces, and was star of 2019's The Intruder. She also appeared in the movies Monster Hunter (2020) and Day Shift (2022). In 2024, Good had a lead role in Tyler Perry's Divorce in the Black. She and actor Taye Diggs then starred in and executive produced Terry McMillan Presents: Forever, a Lifetime original movie.[22]
Personal life
Although she was not raised in the church, Good is a Protestant, considers herself a spiritual person and has said in numerous interviews that she declines roles that she feels might "disappoint God."[23][24] She explained in an interview that Jesus tops her list of heroes, and the last book she read was the Bible.[3]
At age 22, Good chose to focus on her career rather than dating, as she explained in a 2004 interview.[9] In 2011, Good began dating DeVon Franklin, an executive for Columbia Pictures and a Seventh-day Adventist preacher. They became engaged in early April 2012, and were married on June 16, 2012, at Triunfo Creek Winery in Malibu, California.[25][26] The pair stated that they remained chaste in their relationship prior to their marriage.[16] In December 2021, it was announced Good and Franklin were divorcing after nine years of marriage.[27] Their divorce was finalized in June 2022.[28][1]
In May 2023, Good began dating actor Jonathan Majors.[29][30] In November 2024, the couple announced their engagement at Ebony magazine's Power 100 event, where they first met in 2022.[31]
^Dowdell, Niki (May 2005). "Meagan Good: Grounded, Funny and Straight Up Cool". Sister 2 Sister. p. 19.
^Neumer, Chris. "Meagan Good Interview". Stumped? Magazine. Archived from the original on July 3, 2008. Retrieved January 28, 2012. I'm a Christian, but not a religious Christian. I'm just very spiritual. I have my belief system and anything I feel would be disappointing to God I don't do. But, it has to be my personal feeling not someone else's or my pastor's or my mom's. If I feel that it's going to be disappointing to him, I won't do it.
