In director Theodore Melfi’s Hidden Figures Octavia Spencer plays mathematician Dorothy Vaughn, one of the real-life pioneers of space exploration, a team of women (including a contingent of African Americans) who worked at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics – the precursor of NASA- in the early 1960s, crunching the numbers that put Americans among the stars while dealing with racism and bigotry. Playing Dorothy, Spencer told us, led her to be “extremely, extremely grateful to have been  born in this time because there were so many women like Dorothy Vaughn who paved the way for me.  I feel very lucky that my mom taught me that I can do or be anything that I dared to dream.” This is Octavia’s second nomination. In 2012 she was nominated and won in this category for her work in The Help. (Octavia Spencer también en español.)