Gugu Mbatha-Raw

Gugulethu Sophia Mbatha-Raw ( born 21 April 1983) is an English actress.

In 2001, she moved to London to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

She began acting at the National Youth Theatre and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and gained acclaim for her roles as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Octavia in Anthony and Cleopatra in 2005 at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.

One of her earliest dramatic breakthroughs was in Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester in 2005, playing Juliet opposite Andrew Garfield as Romeo, for which she was nominated for best actress in the Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards.

She also appeared as Octavia in Antony and Cleopatra at the same theatre in 2005.

Mbatha-Raw had minor roles on television series such as Bad Girls (2006) and Marple (2007).

Her early television roles include in Doctor Who (2007), the NBC series Undercovers (2010), and FOX's Touch (2012).

In Doctor Who she was featured as Tish Jones, the sister of companion Martha Jones, most prominently in "The Lazarus Experiment" (2007).

She made her West End and Broadway debut portraying Ophelia in Hamlet in 2009.

In 2009, Mbatha-Raw was cast as Ophelia in Hamlet on London's West End and Broadway, opposite Jude Law in the title role In September 2010, she was cast in J. J. Abrams' television series Undercovers after he spotted her in Hamlet.

It was cancelled two months later.

In June 2011, Mbatha-Raw was cast as the female lead on the Fox television series Touch opposite Kiefer Sutherland.

She had a supporting role in the romantic comedy Larry Crowne (2011), written and directed by Tom Hanks.

She was also named one of 42 Brits to Watch by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

She had her breakthrough with the British period drama film Belle (2013), for which she won the BIFA Award for Best Actress.

Mbatha-Raw garnered praise starring in Amma Asante's film Belle (2013), playing the eponymous historical character, Dido Elizabeth Belle, a mixed-race woman raised as a gentlewoman in her paternal uncle Lord Chief Justice Mansfield's household in 18th-century England.

The film debuted at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival where it was acquired by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

After roles in the films Beyond the Lights (2014) and Miss Sloane (2016), she co-starred in the Emmy Award-winning Black Mirror episode "San Junipero" (2016), for which she received acclaim.

It was released in 2014.

Mbatha-Raw was nominated for numerous awards for her performance, including two British Independent Film Awards Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film, which she won, and Most Promising Newcomer.

She was also nominated for a Satellite Award for Best Actress.

In 2014, she spoke at the United Nations headquarters when the film was screened in honor of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

In 2014, Mbatha-Raw also starred as a popular singer in the romantic drama Beyond the Lights.

The film debuted at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

For her work in Beyond the Lights, she was nominated for Best Actress at the 2014 Gotham Awards.

In 2014, Mbatha-Raw was recognized by Elle Magazine during the Women in Hollywood Awards, honoring women for their outstanding achievements in film.

These awards span all aspects of the motion picture industry, including acting, directing and producing.

For her role as the titular character in Jessica Swale's 2015 play Nell Gwynn, she received an Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress nomination.

In 2015, Mbatha-Raw was nominated for a BAFTA Rising Star Award.

Her other film roles include Beauty and the Beast (2017), A Wrinkle in Time (2018), Motherless Brooklyn (2019), Misbehaviour (2020), and Summerland (2020).

In 2017, Mbatha-Raw was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama.

In February 2021, Mbatha-Raw was appointed a global Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Mbatha-Raw was born in Oxford, United Kingdom, the daughter of Patrick Mbatha, a South African doctor, and Anne Raw, an English nurse.

Her first name is a contraction of igugu lethu, which means "our pride" in isiZulu.

As a student, her father was a member of the African National Congress and activist opposing apartheid in South Africa, and had to flee as a result.

Her parents separated when she was a year old, and she lived mostly with her mother.

Mbatha-Raw was educated at The Henry Box School, a state comprehensive school in the market town of Witney in Oxfordshire, where she was raised.

Interested in acting, dance, and musical theatre from a young age, she participated in the National Youth Theatre.

Her credits include dancing at the Judy Tompsett School of Dance, now known as the Marsh Tompsett School of Dance.

She has also acted in the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show (2019), and the Disney+ series Loki (2021–present).