Gugulethu Sophia Mbatha-Raw is a British actress who is known for her performances on stage and screen.
40 Facts About Gugu Mbatha-Raw
2.
In February 2021, Mbatha-Raw was appointed a global Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
3.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw started her career in theatre training at the National Youth Theatre and the Royal School of Dramatic Art.
4.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw gained acclaim for her roles as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Octavia in Anthony and Cleopatra in 2005 at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.
5.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw made her West End and Broadway debut portraying Ophelia in Hamlet in 2009.
6.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw's career progressed with roles in the films Beyond the Lights, Miss Sloane, Beauty and the Beast, A Wrinkle in Time, Motherless Brooklyn, Misbehaviour, and Summerland.
7.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw gained acclaim starring in the Netflix anthology series Black Mirror episode "San Junipero" which received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie.
8.
Gugulethu Sophia Mbatha-Raw was born on 21 April 1983 in Oxford, United Kingdom, the daughter of Patrick Mbatha, a South African doctor, and Anne Raw, an English nurse.
9.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw's first name is a contraction of, which means "our pride" in Zulu.
10.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw's parents separated when she was a year old, and she lived mostly with her mother.
11.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw was educated at The Henry Box School, a state comprehensive school in the market town of Witney in Oxfordshire, where she was raised.
12.
Interested in acting, dance, and musical theatre from a young age, Gugu Mbatha-Raw participated in the National Youth Theatre.
13.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw's credits include dancing at the Judy Tompsett School of Dance, now known as the Marsh Tompsett School of Dance.
14.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw played minor roles on television series such as Bad Girls and Marple.
15.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw was nominated for best actress in the Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards for her portrayal of Juliet.
16.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw appeared as Octavia in Antony and Cleopatra at the same theatre in 2005.
17.
In 2009, Gugu Mbatha-Raw was cast as Ophelia in Hamlet on London's West End and Broadway, opposite Jude Law in the title role In September 2010, she was cast in JJ Abrams' television series Undercovers after he spotted her in Hamlet.
18.
In June 2011, Gugu Mbatha-Raw was cast as the female lead on the Fox television series Touch opposite Kiefer Sutherland.
19.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw had a supporting role in the romantic comedy Larry Crowne, written and directed by Tom Hanks, who starred in the title role.
20.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw was named one of 42 Brits to Watch by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
21.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw garnered praise starring in Amma Asante's film Belle, playing the eponymous historical character, Dido Elizabeth Belle, a mixed-race woman raised as a gentlewoman in her paternal uncle Lord Chief Justice Mansfield's household in 18th-century England.
22.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw was nominated for numerous awards for her performance, including two British Independent Film Awards Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film, which she won, and Most Promising Newcomer.
23.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw was nominated for a Satellite Award for Best Actress.
24.
In 2014, Gugu Mbatha-Raw spoke at the United Nations headquarters when the film was screened in honor of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
25.
In 2014, Gugu Mbatha-Raw starred as a popular singer in the romantic drama Beyond the Lights.
26.
In 2014, Gugu Mbatha-Raw was recognized by Elle Magazine during the Women in Hollywood Awards, honoring women for their outstanding achievements in film.
27.
In recognition of her body of work, Gugu Mbatha-Raw was nominated in 2015 for a BAFTA Rising Star Award.
28.
On 3 July 2015, it was announced that Gugu Mbatha-Raw would be the first to play the title role in Jessica Swale's Nell Gwynn playing the actress who became the mistress of King Charles II of England; it premiered at Shakespeare's Globe from 19 September to 17 October 2015.
29.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw was nominated for an Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance.
30.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw played Prema Mutiso, the wife of Bennet Omalu.
31.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw starred opposite Matthew McConaughey in an American biopic on Newton Knight, a yeoman farmer, and resister of the Confederacy, in Free State of Jones, directed by Gary Ross.
32.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays Knight's common-law wife Rachel, a freedwoman he had a family with after the Civil War.
33.
In 2016, Gugu Mbatha-Raw appeared in "San Junipero", an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror, and played a major supporting role in Miss Sloane, a drama about Washington lobbyists, starring Jessica Chastain.
34.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to drama.
35.
In 2017, Gugu Mbatha-Raw played Plumette in the live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, directed by Bill Condon and co-starring with Emma Watson and Dan Stevens.
36.
In 2018, Gugu Mbatha-Raw starred in a number of science fiction feature productions, including A Wrinkle in Time, directed by Ava DuVernay, and The Cloverfield Paradox.
37.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw played in an independent feature film Fast Color, which premiered worldwide at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Texas.
38.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw was cast to star in the Apple TV+ series Surface.
39.
In 2021, Gugu Mbatha-Raw was appointed to be a global Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
40.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw has "always loved art", and had considered becoming an artist instead of an actor for a time.