Malinda Williams plays Kimberly George, a 22-year-old single mother whose luck finds her winning the $386 million lottery -- and leaving her life in the trailer park behind, in NBC’s new mid-season drama “Windfall.”

Additionally, Williams will appear in the film, “Idlewild,” her first starring role in a major musical production. In this period piece, (also starring Outkast members Big Boi and Andre 3000), Williams will portray Zora, the wife of Rooster (Big Boi).

Regarding her career goals, Williams said, “I just want to portray African-American women accurately, because that is all I represent; not necessarily positively or negatively, just correctly.”

If Williams’ face seems familiar, it may be because she spent five years portraying Tracey “Bird” Van Adams, a beauty salon owner and struggling entrepreneur on the ground-breaking series “Soul Food.” Williams has worked consistently in a business where many careers are short-lived. In 2003 and 2004 she earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series, and in 2002, 2003 and 2004, “Soul Food” received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Drama Series.

Williams’ leading-role film credits include: “The Wood,” “High School High” and “An Invited Guest” (which won the Best of Show at the 1999 Acapulco Black Film Festival and the Audience Award at the 1999 Urban World Festival in New York). She also starred in “Dancing in September.” Her other film credits include, “Sunset Park” and “A Thin Line Between Love and Hate.” Williams’ guest starring television credits include “The District,” NBC’s “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” and “NYPD Blue.”

Having the ability to portray characters ranging from a sophisticated beauty salon owner, to a mentally challenged teenager, Williams has become one of Hollywood’s most promising actresses.