Thandiwe Newton

Melanie Thandiwe Newton (born 6 November 1972), formerly credited as Thandie Newton, is a British actress.

She has received various awards, including a Primetime Emmy Award, and a BAFTA TV Award, in addition to nominations for two Golden Globe Awards.

Melanie Thandiwe Newton was born in the Westminster area of London on 6 November 1972, the daughter of Zimbabwean mother Nyasha Jombe and English father Nick Newton.

Her mother was a member of a Shona chieftaincy family, while her father worked as a laboratory technician and artist.

Her parents lived in Zambia, and she was born whilst they were in England to visit relatives; they then returned to Zambia, where her younger brother was later born.

This has led her birthplace to be incorrectly reported as Zambia in some sources, but she has confirmed in interviews that she was born in Westminster.

"Thandiwe" is a name of Nguni origin and means "beloved".

When Newton was three years old, she returned with her family to England, where they settled in Penzance so her father could help run his family's antique business.

She attended St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School.

She later said of her upbringing, "From about the age of five, I was aware that I didn't fit. I was the black atheist kid in the all-white Catholic school run by nuns. I was an anomaly."

She began dropping the letter "w" from her middle name, making it "Thandie" (pronounced ).

Newton made her film debut in the coming of age comedy-drama Flirting (1991), filmed in 1989 but shelved for two years.

She was credited as "Thandie Newton" and subsequently continued to use this name professionally.

She then portrayed the slave "Yvette" in the Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise film Interview with the Vampire (1994).

Newton appeared in the Merchant Ivory production of Jefferson in Paris as Sally Hemings.

She studied dance at the Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, then studied at Downing College, Cambridge, where she obtained a degree in social anthropology in 1995.

Newton is known for starring roles such as the title character in Beloved (1998), Nyah Nordoff-Hall in Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), Tiffany in Shade (2003), Dame Vaako in The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), Christine in Crash (2004), Linda in The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), Libby in Run Fatboy Run (2007), Stella in RocknRolla (2008), Condoleezza Rice in W. (2008), Laura Wilson in 2012 (2009), Tangie Adrose in For Colored Girls (2010), Maeve Millay in Westworld (2016–2022), Roz Huntley in Line of Duty (2017), and Val in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018).

Next, she played in Jonathan Demme's drama Beloved (1998), based on Toni Morrison's novel, in which she played the title character, the ghost of a young slave girl whose mother kills her to save her from slavery.

The film also starred Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover.

Newton starred as Nyah Nordoff-Hall, again opposite Cruise, in Mission: Impossible 2.

Her next role was in the low-budget film It Was an Accident, written by her husband, screenwriter Ol Parker.

Between 2003 and 2005, Newton played Makemba "Kem" Likasu, love interest of John Carter on the American television series ER.

In 2004, she also appeared in The Chronicles of Riddick and Crash.

She won a BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actress in 2006 for her role in Crash.

She played Chris Gardner's wife, Linda Gardner, in The Pursuit of Happyness.

Also in 2006, Newton performed on radio in a pantomime version of Cinderella.

In 2007, Newton co-starred with Eddie Murphy as his love interest in the comedy Norbit.

Newton was an introducer at Wembley Stadium on 7 July 2007, for the UK leg of Live Earth.

She was due to introduce former US Vice President Al Gore to the concert, but he was delayed, leaving Newton to tell jokes in an attempt to entertain the audience.

She played opposite Simon Pegg as his ex-girlfriend in the 2008 comedy Run Fatboy Run.

She next portrayed Condoleezza Rice, US National Security Advisor and then Secretary of State in W., Oliver Stone's biography of President George W. Bush.

The film was released in October 2008.

She reprised the role for the series finale in 2009.

Newton next portrayed fictional US First Daughter Laura Wilson in 2012, a disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich and released 13 November 2009.

She was also in Perry's movie For Colored Girls (2010), adapted from Ntozake Shange's 1975 original choreopoem for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf.

In July 2011, Newton delivered a TED talk on "Embracing otherness, embracing myself."

She discussed finding her "otherness" as a child growing up in two distinct cultures, and as an actress playing many different selves.

In 2012, she starred alongside Tyler Perry in the romantic drama film Good Deeds.

In 2013, Newton starred in Rogue, the first original drama series for DirecTV's Audience Network.

She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to film and charity.