Thandiwe Newton

Thandi­we New­ton stars on HBO’s crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed series, West­world for which she won the 2018 Emmy Award for Best Sup­port­ing Actress in a Dra­ma Series and was nom­i­nat­ed for two addi­tion­al Emmys. Addi­tion­al­ly, she won two Crit­ics’ Choice Award for Best Sup­port­ing Actress in a Dra­ma Series; was nom­i­nat­ed for two Gold­en Globe Awards for Best Per­for­mance by an Actress in a Sup­port­ing Role in a Series and for two SAG Awards for Out­stand­ing Per­for­mance. New­ton repris­es her role as Maeve Mil­lay in the 3rd sea­son which pre­miered this year. Newton’s oth­er tele­vi­sion cred­its include the acclaimed BBC One dra­ma Line of Duty which gar­nered her rave reviews and a 2018 BAFTA TV Award nom­i­na­tion for Best Lead­ing Actress, ER, Rogue, and The Slap. 

Her film cred­its include: Lisa Joy’s Rem­i­nis­cence (2021) oppo­site Hugh Jack­man, Nash Edgerton’s Gringo (2018) oppo­site David Oyelowo and Char­l­ize Theron, Xavier Dolan’s The Death & Life of John F. Dono­van (2018), Biyi Bandele’s Half A Yel­low Sun (2013) oppo­site Chi­we­tel Ejio­for, Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds (2012) and For Col­ored Girls (2010) oppo­site Whoopi Gold­berg, Oliv­er Stone’s W. (2008), play­ing Sec­re­tary of State Con­doleez­za Rice, Guy Ritchie’s Rock­n­Rol­la (2008), Jonathan Dem­me’s The Truth About Char­lie (2002) and Beloved (1998) in which she received rave reviews for her aston­ish­ing­ly orig­i­nal and bold per­for­mance as the title char­ac­ter which co-starred Oprah Winfrey. 

New­ton is well-known for her work in Acad­e­my Award-win­ning Best Pic­ture Crash, direct­ed by Paul Hag­gis, which also won the Grand Prize at Deauville in 2005. For her per­for­mance, she received a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Sup­port­ing Role and a SAG Award for Out­stand­ing Per­for­mance. New­ton was also praised for her role in Gabriele Muc­ci­no’s crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed box office hit The Pur­suit of Hap­py­ness oppo­site Will Smith. She has also starred in sev­er­al oth­er block­buster films includ­ing John Woo’s Mis­sion: Impos­si­ble 2 (2000), oppo­site Tom Cruise, Roland Emmerich’s 2012 (2009), and Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Sto­ry (2018).

In 2012, New­ton made her stage debut in London’s West End star­ring in Death and the Maid­en by Ariel Dorf­man. In 2016, she record­ed the audio­book for “Jane Eyre” which was in the #9 high­est cus­tomer-rat­ed audio­book for the year. More recent­ly, she record­ed the audio­book “War and Peace” for Audi­ble. 

As an activist and phil­an­thropist, New­ton was named to the Queen’s New Year’s Hon­ours List, receiv­ing an OBE for ser­vices to film and char­i­ty. She is a found­ing board mem­ber of the V‑Day Foun­da­tion and their One Bil­lion Ris­ing cam­paign, a glob­al move­ment to end vio­lence against women and girls. In 2011, she attend­ed the open­ing of City of Joy, which is a trans­for­ma­tion­al lead­er­ship com­mu­ni­ty for women sur­vivors of vio­lence, locat­ed in Bukavu, East­ern Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of Con­go (DRC). New­ton also served as the Exec­u­tive Pro­duc­er on Aaron and Aman­da Kopp’s Liyana, a 2018 ani­mat­ed doc­u­men­tary, which tells the sto­ry of a group of young chil­dren in Swazi­land who use the pow­er of sto­ry­telling to work through per­son­al trau­mas. New­ton is also the exec­u­tive pro­duc­er of the fea­ture doc­u­men­tary Pres­i­dent, which was nom­i­nat­ed for a 2021 Gotham Award for Best Doc­u­men­tary Fea­ture. The film, which was direct­ed by Camil­la Niel­son, sheds light on the first Zim­bab­wean pres­i­den­tial demo­c­ra­t­ic elec­tion since Robert Mugabe was oust­ed in a coup in 2008. 

New­ton mem­o­rably spoke at the 2011 TED Glob­al Con­fer­ence on the top­ic of “Embrac­ing Oth­er­ness” and the video has been viewed over 3.2 mil­lion times.

New­ton was seen on Ama­zon Prime this year star­ring oppo­site Chris Pine in Janus Metz’s All the Old Knives. Addi­tion­al­ly, Thandi­we stars in Julian Hig­gins’ fea­ture direc­to­r­i­al debut, God’s Coun­try which pre­miered at the 2022 Sun­dance Film Fes­ti­val and will be screened at Deauville this year.

Pho­to : © Leigh Groenemeyer