Lee Daniels	...	(Director)
Danny Strong, Wil Haygood	...	(Writer)
Forest Whitaker	...	Cecil Gaines
David Banner	...	Earl Gaines
Michael Rainey Jr.	...	Cecil Gaines (8)
LaJessie Smith	...	Abraham
Mariah Carey	...	Hattie Pearl
Alex Pettyfer	...	Thomas Westfall
Vanessa Redgrave	...	Annabeth Westfall
Aml Ameen	...	Cecil Gaines (15)
Clarence Williams III	...	Maynard
John P. Fertitta	...	Mr. Jenkins (as John Fertitta)
Jim Gleason	...	R.D. Warner
Oprah Winfrey	...	Gloria Gaines
Isaac White	...	Charlie Gaines (10)
David Oyelowo	...	Louis Gaines
Joe Chrest	...	White Usher
Colman Domingo	...	Freddie Fallows
Adriane Lenox	...	Gina
Terrence Howard	...	Howard
Tyson Ford	...	Elroy
Cuba Gooding Jr.	...	Carter Wilson
Lenny Kravitz	...	James Holloway
Pernell Walker	...	Lorraine
James DuMont	...	Sherman Adams
Robert Aberdeen	...	Herbert Brownell
Robin Williams	...	Dwight D. Eisenhower
John Cusack	...	Richard Nixon
Olivia Washington	...	Olivia
Yaya DaCosta	...	Carol Hammie (as Yaya Alafia)
Jesse Williams	...	James Lawson
Margaret M. Owens	...	Woolworth Diner Patron #1
Eric Ducote	...	Woolworth Diner Patron #2
James Marsden	...	John F. Kennedy
Minka Kelly	...	Jacqueline Kennedy
Chloe Barach	...	Caroline Kennedy
Danny Strong	...	Freedom Bus Journalist
Clara Hopkins Daniels	...	Freedom Bus Rider
Elijah Kelley	...	Charlie Gaines (15-18)
Liev Schreiber	...	Lyndon B. Johnson
Dana Gourrier	...	Helen Holloway
Shirley Pugh	...	Malcolm X Goer
Bill Newman	...	Pastor
Nelsan Ellis	...	Martin Luther King Jr.
Colin Walker	...	John Ehrlichman
Alex Manette	...	Bob Haldeman
Mo McRae	...	Eldridge Huggins
Alan Rickman	...	Ronald Reagan
Jane Fonda	...	Nancy Reagan
Rusty Robertson	...	Senator Robertson
Nealla Gordon	...	Senator Kassebaum
Stephen Rider	...	Admiral Rochon
Rodrigo Leão	...	Composer
Andrew Dunn	...	Cinematographer
Brian A. Kates	...	Editor
Joe Klotz	...	Editor
Tim Galvin	...	Production Designer
Gerry Robert Byrne	...	post-production supervisor
Adam Merims	...	Unit Production Manager
Jen Wall	...	Production Supervisor
Mark E. Brown	...	additional second assistant director (as Mark Brown) / second second assistant director: second unit (as Mark Brown)
Peter Dress	...	second assistant director
Renee Marsella	...	key second assistant director: second unit
Anastacia C. Nemec	...	second second assistant director
Lisa C. Satriano	...	first assistant director
Nick Satriano	...	first assistant director: second unit
Sebastián Silva	...	second unit director

Summary: Cecil Gaines was a sharecropper's son who grew up in the 1920s as a domestic servant for the white family who casually destroyed his. Eventually striking out on his own, Cecil becomes a hotel valet of such efficiency and discreteness in the 1950s that he becomes a butler in the White House itself. There, Cecil would serve numerous US Presidents over the decades as a passive witness of history with the American Civil Rights Movement gaining momentum even as his family has troubles of its own. As his wife, Gloria, struggles with her addictions and his defiant eldest son, Louis, strives for a just world, Cecil must decide whether he should take action in his own way.