Taraji P. Henson was back in action for her third year of hosting the BET Awards, and with that came a plethora of glam changes. Henson and her team, including hairstylist Tym Wallace, makeup artist Saisha Beecham, and manicurist Temeka Jackson, were busy backstage changing up the actor’s looks again and again throughout the night, swapping wigs and lipstick shades alongside many outfit changes.
Henson aced her hosting duties yet again, opening the show with a parody of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” (more on that below), speaking out against Donald Trump, and playing the banjo, among many other memorable moments. The actor also took a moment to tell viewers to “show up and show out” with their ballots in November. “It’s not just about the presidential election. It’s time for us to play chess, not checkers,” she said in her impassioned speech. “It’s about making decisions that will affect us as human beings: our careers, our next generations to come … They are attacking our most vulnerable citizens.” Henson also mentioned the Project 2025 plan, a proposed conservative policy that could have major impacts on the government as we know it should Donald Trump win the 2024 presidential election. “I’m not trying to scare us, I’m trying to inform us,” she said. “We’ve got three Supreme Court seats up. We need those seats or we have no protection.”
Ahead, check out some of Henson’s best host looks from the 2024 BET Awards.
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