Thandiwe Newton | |
|---|---|
 Newton in 2021 | |
| Born | Melanie Thandiwe Newton (1972-11-06)6 November 1972 (age 53) Westminster, London, England |
| Other names | Thandie Newton |
| Education | Downing College, Cambridge (BA) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3, includingNico andRipley |
Melanie Thandiwe NewtonOBE (/ˈtændiːweɪ/TAN-dee-way;[1] born 6 November 1972), formerly credited asThandie Newton (/ˈtændi/TAN-dee), is an English actress. She has receivedvarious awards, including aPrimetime Emmy and aBAFTA, as well as nominations for twoGolden Globes. She was appointedOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the2019 New Year Honours for services to film and charity.[2]
Newton made her film debut inFlirting (1991) and had a supporting role inInterview with the Vampire (1994), before achieving wider recognition with her portrayal of the title character inBeloved (1998). Subsequent credits includeMission: Impossible 2 (2000),The Chronicles of Riddick (2004),The Pursuit of Happyness (2006),Norbit,Run Fatboy Run (both 2007),RocknRolla,W. (both 2008),2012 (2009),For Colored Girls (2010), andSolo: A Star Wars Story (2018). For her performance inCrash (2004), she won theBAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress.
On television, Newton playedMaeve Millay inWestworld (2016–2022), winning thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in 2018. Her other credits includeER (2003–2009),Rogue (2013–2015),The Slap (2015), andLine of Duty (2017). She also voiced Mona in the animated sitcomBig Mouth (2019–2025) and its spinoff,Human Resources (2021–2023).
Melanie Thandiwe Newton was born in theWestminster area ofLondon on 6 November 1972, the daughter of aZimbabwean mother and an English father.[3][4] Her mother was a member of aShonachieftaincy family,[3][4] and her father worked as a laboratory technician and artist.[5] Her parents lived inZambia, and she was born whilst they were in England to visit relatives; they then returned to Zambia, where her younger brother was later born.[6][7] This has led her birthplace to be incorrectly reported as Zambia in some sources,[8] but she has confirmed in interviews that she was born in Westminster.[9][10] "Thandiwe" is a name ofNguni origin and means "beloved".[11][12]
When Newton was three years old, she returned with her family to England, where they settled inPenzance so her father could help run his family's antique business.[6] She attended St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School.[13] She later said of her upbringing, "From about the age of five, I was aware that I didn't fit. I was the blackatheist kid in the all-white Catholic school run by nuns. I was an anomaly."[14] She began dropping the letter "w" from her middle name, making it "Thandie" (pronounced/ˈtændi/TAN-dee).[3][4] She studied dance at theTring Park School for the Performing Arts, then studied atDowning College, Cambridge, where she obtained a degree insocial anthropology in 1995.[15]
Newton made her film debut in thecoming of age comedy-dramaFlirting (1991), filmed in 1989 but shelved for two years. She was credited as "Thandie Newton" and subsequently continued to use this name professionally.[3][10] She then portrayed the slave "Yvette" in theBrad Pitt andTom Cruise filmInterview with the Vampire (1994). Newton appeared in theMerchant Ivory production ofJefferson in Paris asSally Hemings. She then played Cookie in the 1996 movieGridlock'd alongsideTupac Shakur andTim Roth. Next, she played inJonathan Demme's dramaBeloved (1998), based onToni 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 starredOprah Winfrey andDanny Glover. Newton starred as Nyah Nordoff-Hall, again opposite Cruise, inMission: Impossible 2. Her next role was in the low-budget filmIt Was an Accident, written by her husband, screenwriterOl Parker.[16]
Between 2003 and 2005, Newton played Makemba "Kem" Likasu, love interest ofJohn Carter on the American television seriesER. She reprised the role for the series finale in 2009. She took a supporting role as Dame Vaako inThe Chronicles of Riddick (2004). She acted in the ensemble dramaCrash acting oppositeTerrence Howard, playing a woman who wasgroped by a police officer played byMatt Dillon. Her performance earned widespread acclaim earning her theBAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role as well as a nomination with the cast for aScreen Actors Guild Award.[17][18] She played Chris Gardner's wife, Linda Gardner, inThe Pursuit of Happyness oppositeWill Smith. Also in 2006, Newton performed on radio in apantomime version ofCinderella.[19]
In 2007, Newton co-starred withEddie Murphy as his love interest in the comedyNorbit. She played oppositeSimon Pegg as his ex-girlfriend in the 2007 comedyRun Fatboy Run. She next portrayedCondoleezza Rice, USNational Security Advisor and then Secretary of State inW.,Oliver Stone's biography of PresidentGeorge W. Bush. The film was released in October 2008. Newton was an introducer atWembley Stadium on 7 July 2007, for theUK leg ofLive Earth. She was due to introduce former US Vice PresidentAl Gore to the concert, but he was delayed, leaving Newton to tell jokes in an attempt to entertain the audience.[20] Newton next portrayed fictional USFirst Daughter Laura Wilson in2012, a disaster film directed byRoland Emmerich and released 13 November 2009. In July 2011, Newton delivered aTED 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.[21] She acted inTyler Perry's movieFor Colored Girls (2010), adapted fromNtozake Shange's 1975 originalchoreopoemfor colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf.
In 2012, she starred oppositeTyler Perry in his romantic drama filmGood Deeds,[22] the film was a moderate financial success but received negative reviews.[23][24] That same year she made herWest End debut playing Paulina Salas in the revival of theAriel Dorfman playDeath and the Maiden at theHarold Pinter Theatre. Kate Kellaway ofThe Guardian wrote of her performance, "She has been completely miscast. She looks and sounds too immaculate. And the trouble is that, with a less than brilliant lead, the play's contrivance starts to show through."[25] In 2013, Newton starred inRogue, the first original drama series forDirecTV'sAudience Network.[26] She leftRogue during the third season. In 2015, she starred in the US miniseriesThe Slap.
From 2016 to 2022, Newton portrayed Maeve Millay inHBO science fiction drama seriesWestworld, for which she garnered universal acclaim. She received several accolades, including aPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (out of three nominations), twoCritics’ Choice Awards, and nominations for aGolden Globe andScreen Actors Guild Award. James White forEmpire lauded Newton's performance, saying: "Thandie Newton is killing these emotional moments, giving Maeve a twitchy, panicked air without ever overplaying it and really helping us to feel for her."[27] William Goodman forComplex wrote: "Westworld becomes the Thandie Newton show, which benefits everyone involved; she’s consistently electric, and the series gives her no shortage of fun things to do."[28]
In 2017, she served as a narrator for the documentary entitledBill Cosby: Fall of an American Icon, an exposé on the sexual assault charges laid against Cosby, which aired onBBC One. In the same year, Newton played DCI Roseanne "Roz" Huntley in the fourth season of BBC One'sLine of Duty, a role for which she received aBAFTA TV Award nomination for Best Actress.
Newton appeared as Val in theStar Wars filmSolo: A Star Wars Story, which was released in May 2018 to generally favorable reviews but bombed at the box office with a worldwide gross of $393.2 million.[29] Newton became the first black woman to have a major non-alien role in aStar Wars film; however, she expressed disappointment in the role as the fate of the character was changed during filming and found it to be a mistake for the franchise in the sense of what it meant for black women in the franchise.[30] Additionally, Scott Mendelson forForbes felt that Newton was "underutilized" andDavid Edelstein forVulture wrote in praise of her performance: "The only thing wrong with Thandie Newton’s performance is that there’s not enough of it."[31][32]
In a 2021 interview, Newton announced that she would be changing her name back to its original form "Thandiwe",[33] and would be credited as such beginning withReminiscence (2021). She also said that she would attempt to have corrections applied to her past performance credits.[3] In 2022, Newton played the lead role of Sandra Guidry in the thrillerGod’s Country which premiered at theSundance Film Festival. For her performance in the film, she received a nomination forOutstanding Lead Performance at theGotham Awards.[34]
In 2006, Newton contributed a foreword toWe Wish: Hopes and Dreams of Cornwall's Children, a book of children's writing published in aid of theNSPCC. In it, she wrote about her childhood memories of growing up in Cornwall, and the way in which its cultural heritage made it easy for her to "enrich every situation with layers of magic and meaning".[35]
In 2008, Newton visited the poverty-stricken village ofNampasso in Mali, describing it as a "humbling experience".[36]
In 2013, Newton led theOne Billion Rising flash mob in London for justice, gender equality, and an end to violence.[37]
Newton married English filmmakerOl Parker in 1998.[38][39] They have two daughters,Ripley (born 2000) andNico (born 2004), and a son, Booker (born 2014). All three werehome births.[40] Nico is also an actress and Ripley is a writer. Newton has been close friends withNicole Kidman since 1989.[41] She and Parker separated in 2022. Newton is currently in a relationship with American musician Elijah Dias, better known by his stage name Lonr.[42][43]
Newton is avegan and was namedPETA's "Sexiest Vegan of 2014" in the UK.[44] In 2007, afterGreenpeace members put a sticker that said "this gas-guzzling 4x4 is causing climate change" on theBMW X5 she had only recently purchased, she sold the car and bought aToyota Prius.[45] She has expressed an affinity forBuddhism.[46][47]David Schwimmer, who directedRun Fatboy Run, called her "the queen ofpractical jokes" for her behaviour on film sets.[48]
In 2016, Newton stated she had been the victim of a director who repeatedly showed his friends a video of her in a sexually graphic audition she had made as a teenager.[49][50] She cited this experience as part of why she had taken theWestworld role, which involved substantial nudity and reflected experiences of survivors of sexual abuse while also asking moral questions about what it means to be human.[50] In 2018, she said she was disappointed not to have been invited to participate inTime's Up, a movement against sexual harassment, considering that she had been "ostracised" for having spoken out about alleged sexual abuse by a director.[51]
Newton was ranked one of the best-dressed women in 2018 by fashion websiteNet-a-Porter.[52] Later that year, she was named as one of the 100 most influential black British people in thePowerlist.[53] In 2020, Newton was one of a number of celebrities and MPs who signed a letter opposing the deportation of 50 convicted offenders from the UK to Jamaica.[54]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Pirate Prince | Becky Newton | Television film |
| 1997 | In Your Dreams | Clare | |
| 2003–2009 | ER | Makemba "Kem" Likasu | Recurring role; 14 episodes |
| 2006 | American Dad! | Makeva (voice) | Episode: "Camp Refoogee" |
| 2013–2015 | Rogue | Grace Travis | Main role; 24 episodes |
| 2015 | The Slap | Aisha | Main role; 8 episodes |
| 2016–2022 | Westworld | Maeve Millay | Main role; 36 episodes |
| 2017 | Line of Duty | DCI Roseanne "Roz" Huntley | Main role; 6 episodes |
| 2018 | The Big Narstie Show | Herself | Season 1, Episode 2 |
| 2019–2025 | Big Mouth | Mona the Hormone Monstress (voice) | Recurring role; 36 episodes |
| 2020 | RuPaul's Drag Race | Herself / Guest judge | 2 episodes: "You Don't Know Me" / "Grand Finale" |
| 2022–2023 | Human Resources | Mona the Hormone Monstress (voice) | Recurring role |
| 2025 | Wednesday | Dr. Fairburn | Season 2; guest role |
| Year | Title | Role | Venue | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011–2012 | Death and the Maiden | Paulina Salas | Harold Pinter Theatre, West End | [55] |
| Year | Song | Artist | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | "Family Feud" | Jay-Z feat.Beyoncé | [56] |
Thandiwe means 'beloved' in the Zulu, Ndebele and Xhosa languages. [...] This article was amended on 5 April 2021 to remove an incorrect phrase saying 'Thandiwe means "beloved" in the Shona language'.
