Kerry Marisa Washington is an American actress. She gained wide public recognition for starring as crisis management expert Olivia Pope in the ABC drama series Scandal (2012–2018). For her role, she was twice nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and once for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama. Her portrayal of Anita Hill in the HBO television political thriller film Confirmation (2016), and her role as Mia Warren in the Hulu miniseries Little Fires Everywhere (2020), both earned nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.

Olivia Carolyn Pope is a fictional character created by Shonda Rhimes for the political drama television series Scandal. This character also played a small role in the series How to Get Away with Murder on its 4th season produced by Shonda Rhimes: where she plays a crisis manager who helped Annalise get her class-action case heard by the Supreme Court. The character is partially based on American lawyer, manager and author Judy Smith. In the series, Pope is played as an adult by Kerry Washington and as a child by Yara Shahidi.