The "Hidden Figures" actress has a relative in her family tree who made a great contribution to science by being the first to reach the North Pole. Actress and author Taraji P. Henson starred in the historical drama movie Hidden Figures, portraying real-life African-American mathematician Katherine Johnson, whose work contributed to NASA, the space race, and the advancement of science. An interesting tie-in to Taraji's ancestry is that her great-great uncle, Matthew Alexander