Danielle Brooks

Danielle Brooks is an American actor and singer best known for playing Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson in Orange Is the New Black, a role that helped make the series one of the defining television hits of the 2010s. On stage, she earned a Tony Award nomination for her Broadway portrayal of Sofia in The Color Purple. She later reprised the wider Color Purple story on screen, with her performance receiving major awards attention, including an Academy Award nomination for Actress in a Supporting Role and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Brooks has also spoken publicly about choosing a vegan diet. In 2017, she shared that she had gone vegan and framed it as part of a wider shift in how she approached food, describing it as learning to treat food as fuel rather than comfort and saying it was her way of teaching herself “how to eat properly”. Around the same time, she posted about her “vegan life” on social media, showing she was actively embracing plant-based living.

Alongside her work as a performer, Brooks has spoken about wellbeing and self-care in a grounded, practical way. Her vegan choices sit within that same approach: taking control of daily habits, making changes that feel sustainable, and doing it with honesty rather than perfectionism.