Aja Naomi King (/ˈeɪdʒə/; born January 11, 1985) is an American actress. She played Michaela Pratt in How to Get Away with Murder. She began her career in guest-starring roles on television, and starred as Cassandra Kopelson in The CW medical comedy-drama Emily Owens, M.D.

In 2014, King began starring as Michaela Pratt in the ABC legal drama series How to Get Away with Murder, for which she received an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series nomination in 2015. She also has starred in the films Four (2012) and Reversion (2015). In 2016, she portrayed Cherry Turner in the historical film The Birth of a Nation (2016) and the following year appeared in the comedy-drama The Upside (2017).

Early life :

King was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Walnut, California. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University's School of Drama in 2010. At Yale University, King performed in a number of productions, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, Little Shop of Horrors, and Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.