Gabrielle Monique Union-Wade (née Union; born October 29, 1972) is an American actress, model and author. Her career began in the 1990s, when she made dozens of appearances on television sitcoms before landing supporting roles in 1999 teen films She's All That and 10 Things I Hate About You. Her breakthrough role arrived the following year in the teen film Bring It On.
Union is known for her performances in the romantic comedy films The Brothers (2001), Deliver Us from Eva (2003), Daddy's Little Girls (2007), Think Like a Man (2012) and Think Like a Man Too (2014). She also had starring roles in the CBS medical drama series City of Angels (2000) and in the films Bad Boys II (2003), Cradle 2 the Grave (2003), Neo Ned (2005), Cadillac Records (2008), Top Five (2014), Breaking In (2018), and The Perfect Find (2023). She has also co-starred in the films The Birth of a Nation (2016), Almost Christmas (2016) and Sleepless (2017).
Union starred as the lead characters in BET drama series Being Mary Jane (2013–2019), for which she has received an NAACP Image Award, and in the crime series L.A.'s Finest (2019–2020). Outside of acting, Union has written four books: two memoirs, titled We're Going to Need More Wine (2017) and You Got Anything Stronger? (2021), and two children's books, titled Welcome to the Party (2020) and Shady Baby (2021).
At the age of 19, Union was attacked and raped at gunpoint. She has been an outspoken advocate for issues involving women's health, LGBTQ+ equality, and violence against women, and was awarded the President's Award from the NAACP Image Awards, alongside her husband Dwyane Wade for their humanitarian efforts. Union was included on Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2020.
Union was born on October 29, 1972, in Omaha, Nebraska, the daughter of Theresa (née Glass), a phone company manager and social worker, and Sylvester E. Union, a military sergeant. She was raised Catholic. During her childhood, she was taught to be "an independent woman, standing on my own two feet, and that's the road I opted to take." According to Union, her mother taught her to have a "world perspective" and took her to a gay pride parade at the age of eight after the family moved to Pleasanton, California. She attended Foothill High School where she was a year-round student athlete, competing in varsity soccer, track, and basketball. In her junior year, Union dated Jason Kidd, who was attending St. Joseph Notre Dame High School in nearby Alameda.
Union's parents divorced after 30 years of marriage. She said, "They handled their divorce and our subsequent transition into a blended family with grace, dignity and respect. They always put us first and didn't involve us. I'm lucky that I can just mirror what my parents did and always put the kids first. They're pretty awesome. I'm lucky."
Union grew up with self-esteem issues relating to colorism, as one of the few African-American children in her environment. When Union was younger, she believed that "blonde was the ideal of beauty, and if I looked nothing like that, then I must be ugly." On her college football memories, Union reflected, "In my family if you couldn't talk Cornhusker football—that means knowing the Blackshirt defense, knowing the I-back formation—then you don't get to have an opinion. When I first toured the Nebraska campus and I saw Turner Gill walk, I freaked out. That was like the biggest star-struck moment I've probably ever had in my life. But it's because I grew up in a household that always talked specifically Cornhusker football and Big 8 sports at the time."
During the summer before starting her sophomore year of college at UCLA, at the age of 19, Union was attacked and raped at gunpoint at her part-time job at a Payless shoe store by a robber. Union has said she would not have survived the attack had it not been for self-defense lessons from Oprah Winfrey's talk show. She successfully sued Payless for negligence, alleging that the store failed to warn employees about the assailant, who had previously been identified robbing another Payless location.
Union has a bachelor's degree in sociology from UCLA.
Union started her acting career with minor roles. Her first audition was for Saved by the Bell. In 1997, Union appeared in the sixth-season episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine—"Sons and Daughters" as the Klingon N'Garen. She also appeared in Moesha as Ashli, Sister, Sister as Vanessa, in Smart Guy as Denise, and in five episodes of 7th Heaven as Keesha Hamilton. She also appeared on an episode of Friends, "The One with the Cheap Wedding Dress", as Kristen, a love interest to both Ross and Joey. Other earlier roles included teen movies such as She's All That and 10 Things I Hate About You.
Union appeared in the 2000 film Love & Basketball. She then played the role of Isis in the cheerleading movie Bring It On, which helped push Union into the mainstream. Bring It On led to Union being cast in the CBS television drama City of Angels as Dr. Courtney Ellis. In 2001, Union was featured in The Brothers and was seen as having a "beguiling sincerity, even when she's fudging the truth." Union was cast in her first leading role in the 2003 film Deliver Us from Eva. When casting Eva, director Gary Hardwick was looking for an actress capable of instantly changing "from funny to caustic and dramatic." Hardwick had previously worked with Union in The Brothers and believed she was perfect for the role of Eva. Union's role in the film was met with praise, with Dustin Putman of All-Reviews.com writing that she was "the star attraction, and the number-one reason to even consider seeing the film." Union drew influence from her father for the "stern" look she had in the film, admitting that she had stolen it from him.
In 2003, Union landed the role of the main character Mike Lowrey's girlfriend, Syd, in the film Bad Boys II, a box-office success grossing more than $273 million worldwide. Union felt that she had been "blessed" with her role in the film, feeling it elevated her career. That same year, she lent her voice to the animated television series The Proud Family. The following year, she appeared in Something the Lord Made. Union also starred in the 2004 film Breakin' All the Rules, which was unpopular with critics. She appeared in the 2005 film Neo Ned, portraying an African-American woman with delusions that she is Adolf Hitler. She and co-star Jeremy Renner were noted by Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times as having "a strange, offbeat chemistry that drives the film". She won an award for Best Actress in Neo Ned at the Palm Beach International Film Festival, and the film received awards at several festivals.
She starred in the 2005 remake of The Honeymooners. That year, Union also starred in the short-lived ABC series Night Stalker. She called the series a "reworking" rather than a remake. Union admitted that at the time of getting the script she was turned off, but she became interested after reading the script at her agent's insistence. She then met with series creator Frank Spotnitz and executive producer Daniel Sackheim, who told her they thought of her anytime they thought of the character. In 2006, she starred in the music video for Busta Rhymes' "I Love My Bitch".
Union starred in the 2007 film Daddy's Little Girls by Tyler Perry. The role of Julia Rossmore, a romantically challenged attorney, was written with her in mind. Before working with Perry, she went to see his stage show to both understand him and his audience. She filmed Daddy's Little Girls in mid-2006 in Atlanta, Georgia. Union was praised for her character's portrayal and for having a "great sense of comedic timing". Union's character also drew comparisons to Eva, her role in Deliver Us from Eva. According to Union, Perry had specifically approached her over not turning the role into the same character. Union starred with Morris Chestnut in the 2007 Christmas film The Perfect Holiday. Since she had no children of her own, Union drew on her familiarity with her mother and sister to portray the divorced single mother of three in the film. Union initially turned down the role, as she did not want to get typecast for playing a mother until she was told of other actresses that had played similar roles and still found success in their careers.