Amandla Stenberg (born October 23, 1998) is an American actress. She[note 1] began her career as a child and received recognition for playingRue in the action filmThe Hunger Games (2012). As she grew older, she appeared in the supernatural seriesSleepy Hollow (2013–2014) and the romance filmEverything, Everything (2017). She received praise for her performance as a teenager witnessing a police shooting in the drama filmThe Hate U Give (2018). She then starred in the comedy horror filmBodies Bodies Bodies (2022) and theStar Wars seriesThe Acolyte (2024).
Outside of acting, Stenberg made her musical debut in 2015, performing as part of thefolk rock duo Honeywater, and performed the song "Let My Baby Stay" forEverything, Everything. She is also noted for her activism towardsLGBT youth, and was included onTime's lists of most influential teens in 2015 and 2016.
Early life
Amandla Stenberg, born inLos Angeles, California, is the child of Karen Brailsford, an African-American spiritual counselor and writer, and Tom Stenberg, who is Danish.[4][5][6][7] Stenberg has two older half-sisters on her father's side.[8][9] She hasGreenlandic Inuit ancestry through her paternal grandmother, Ena Stenberg, who was born in Greenland and moved to Denmark during direct colonial rule of Greenland. She was a radio personality and singer in Denmark who performed with a group called Mik that sang at theWorld’s Fair in New York in 1964. Ena Stenberg was associated with the Danish colonial community in Greenland before moving to Denmark.[10][11]
Stenberg's first name means "power" or "strength" in theSouth African languages ofIsiXhosa andZulu.[12] At age four, Stenberg started doing catalog modeling shoots forDisney.[1] She has appeared in commercials for clients such asBoeing andKmart.[13][14]
In 2011, she appeared in her first feature film,Colombiana, as a younger version ofZoe Saldana's character.[22] Her breakthrough came at the age of 14, when she was cast as Rue in the 2012 filmThe Hunger Games.[23] The film was a critical and financial success,[24][25] and Stenberg's performance was praised. She received a number of awards and nominations, including aBlack Reel Award nomination.[26] In 2013, she was cast in the short filmMercy playing the daughter ofRobin Thicke andPaula Patton; Thicke directed the film.[27][28] Stenberg had arecurring role on season one ofSleepy Hollow from 2013 to 2014.[29]
In 2013, Stenberg began performing on the violin and singing harmonies at Los Angeles venues with singer-songwriter Zander Hawley. In 2014, Stenberg voiced Bia in the animated filmRio 2, which was a commercial success.[30][31] She played series regular Halle Foster on the short-lived seriesMr. Robinson, which ran in 2015.[32]
In 2016, Stenberg appeared inBeyoncé: Lemonade byBeyoncé,[33] and won theBET YoungStars Award.[34] In the same year, she signed withThe Society, a modelling agency.[35] Also in 2016, Stenberg had auditioned for the role ofShuri in thesuperhero filmBlack Panther, however, she walked away because she felt that she was not right for the role. She toldVariety magazine in 2018: "It was so exhilarating to see it fulfilled by people who should have been a part of it and who deserved it and who were right for it. I just wasn't."[36][37] The role was instead given to actressLetitia Wright.
In August 2020, she was cast as Alana Beck inStephen Chbosky's film adaptation of the Broadway musicalDear Evan Hansen. She also collaborated with the show's composers,Pasek and Paul, on "The Anonymous Ones", a new song written specifically for her character, whose role was expanded upon from thestage version.[48] In 2021, Stenberg was cast in the main role for theStar Wars seriesThe Acolyte.[49][50] On August 28, 2024, she shared via Instagram Stories that the cancellation of the show was "not a huge shock to [her]" due to the "hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudice, hatred and hateful language" it received fromStar Wars fans.[51] In May 2023, she was announced as part of the voice cast ofSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse asMargo Kess / Spider-Byte.[52]
In 2015, Stenberg released her first EP in August 2015 as thefolk rock duo Honeywater. Also in 2015, she released the video "Don't Cash Crop My Cornrows", which admonishedKylie Jenner for adopting thetraditionally African-American hairstyle.[58] In 2017, she performed "Let My Baby Stay" for the soundtrack forEverything, Everything.[61]
On June 19, 2024, Stenberg released "Discourse", a song that was created to address the racial prejudice she has endured. The track references a viral 2018 interview she had withThe Daily Show'sTrevor Noah, in which Stenberg raps "white people crying actually was the goal" ofThe Hate U Give, a film she stars in about the aftermath of a Black teenager's murder by a police officer.[62]
Writing
Stenberg co-wrote the comic bookNiobe: She is Life with Sebastian Jones, which was illustrated byAshley A. Woods, and published in November 2015.[53][63] It is the first nationally distributed comic that has a black woman as its protagonist, author, and another as the artist.[64] In 2017, Stenberg and Sebastian Jones releasedNiobe: She is Death, the second part of the trilogy.[65]
Media image
Dazed magazine named Stenberg "one of the most incendiary voices of her generation" when it featured her on its Autumn 2015 cover.[66] She was included inTime's list of Most Influential Teens in 2015 and again in 2016.[67][68] In 2016, she was included in theSuperSoul 100 list of visionaries and influential leaders byOprah Winfrey.[69]
On October 6, 2018,Teen Vogue published an op-ed Stenberg had written for the magazine, in which she shared that she experienced two separate counts ofsexual assault.[79]
From early 2018 to late 2018, Stenberg dated singer Mikaela Mullaney Straus, better known by her stage nameKing Princess.[80] In a July 2017 interview, Stenberg said she had stopped using a smartphone, believing that such devices and social media can have a negative effect on mental health.[81] From 2018 to 2020, she was in a relationship with singer-songwriterLindsey Jordan.[82][83]
During 2020, Stenberg lived inCopenhagen for three months in order toretain her Danish citizenship.[84]
Stenberg's first nominations were forThe Hunger Games (2012),[96] and her first win was theBET YoungStars Award at the age of 17.[97][98] She received nominations for her performance as an ill teenager in the drama filmEverything, Everything (2017).[99]
Notes
^Stenberg uses both she/her and they/them pronouns.[2][3] This article uses she/her pronouns for consistency.
