Thandiwe Newton

Melanie Thandiwe Newton Parker

Sitter in 2 portraits
Thandiwe Newton was born in London and grew up in Cornwall, the daughter of a Zimbabwean mother from the Shona tribe and a British father. Her parents both worked in healthcare in Zambia until political unrest caused them to move back to the UK. She studied Anthropology at Downing College, University of Cambridge. She made her film debut in Flirting (1991), subsequently starring in Beloved (1998) and Mission: Impossible II (2000). From 2003-5, she appeared on the American television series ER. Newton was awarded a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for her role opposite Matt Dillon in Crash (2006) and played Condoleezza Rice in the George W. Bush biopic W (2008). In 2011, she made her London stage debut in Death and the Maiden at the Harold Pinter Theatre. Since 2016, Newton has appeared as a main character in the HBO television series Westworld, for which she won the 2018 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress. She appeared in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), and in the music video for Jay-Z and Beyonce’s track Family Feud (2017). Newton is a passionately outspoken advocate for equal pay and an end to abuse in the film industry.