Thandiwe Newton Biography

MARITAL STATUS
Professions Actress , Executive producer
Birth name Melanie Thandiwe Newton
Pseudo Thandie Newton
British nationality
Birth November 6, 1972 (London – England)

BIOGRAPHY
Born in London to an English father and a Zimbabwean mother (princess), Thandiwe Newton spent her childhood in Zambia but had to leave the country at the age of four due to the political unrest ravaging the country. Installed in England, she developed her taste for dance and comedy thanks to courses at London’s Art Educational School , then launched into cinema in 1991 with the dramatic comedy Flirting , in which she played a young Ugandan enrolled in a posh boarding school. facing a still beginner Nicole Kidman .

It is in the credits of this film that the actress’s first name is changed to “Thandie” Newton, considered more “Western”. In 2021, she decided to return to her original first name, which means “beloved” in Shona, a southern African language.

Handicapped by a poorly developed English accent, Thandiwe Newton struggles to obtain new roles and returns to her studies, obtaining a degree in anthropology at the University of Cambridge. But she was quickly caught up in cinema and diversified her roles as much as possible. Victim in Interview with the Vampire (1994), slave and mistress of Nick Nolte in Jefferson in Paris (1995), she is also a drugged singer in Gridlock’d (1997). She then becomes the heroine of two feature films dealing with Africa: she is a victim of the dictatorship in Shandurai by Bernardo Bertolucci and ravaged by slavery in Beloved , by Jonathan Demme .

It was by playing the leading female role in Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), in which she played an attractive burglar, that the face of the young woman became familiar to the general public. In 2002, the actress, who knows how to be quite discreet on the big screen, reunited with Jonathan Demme for The Truth About Charlie , a remake of Stanley Donen ‘s Charade . Two years later, she explored the world of science fiction for the first time by starring in The Chronicles of Riddick alongside Vin Diesel , then was part of the cast of the Oscar-winning Collision . In 2007, pursuing an eclectic and waveless career, she played Will Smith ‘s companion in The Pursuit of Happyness , accompanied Eddie Murphy in the credits of the comedy Norbit ,

, the first production of one of our favorite Friends David Schwimmer . 2008 is a big year since we find Thandiwe Newton on the poster for W. – The Improbable President by Oliver Stone , a biopic on George W. Bush where she plays Condoleezza Rice, Rock’NRolla by Guy Ritchie and the 2012 disaster film by Roland Emmerich.

In the 2010s, Thandiwe Newton is mainly present on the small screen. The London native thus joins the cast of Emergencies in the shoes of a doctor engaged in the fight against AIDS who has a child with John Carter. She then played one of the main characters in Rogue and The Slap , but it was through Westworld that she found her most impactful role. In this sci-fi series produced by JJ Abrams and Jonathan Nolan , the actress plays a brothel owner who is also one of the first hosts of the Westworld park to question its existence.

On the big screen, Thandiwe Newton plays criminal Val in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) and reporter in My Life with John F. Donovan (2019).