Melanie Thandiwe Newton, formerly credited as Thandie Newton, is a British actress.
38 Facts About Thandiwe Newton
2.
Thandiwe Newton was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to film and charity.
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Melanie Thandiwe Newton was born in the Westminster area of London on 6 November 1972, the daughter of Zimbabwean mother Nyasha Jombe and English father Nick Newton.
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Thandiwe Newton's mother was a member of a Shona chieftaincy family, while her father worked as a laboratory technician and artist.
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Thandiwe Newton's parents lived in Zambia, and she was born while they were back in England to visit relatives; they then returned to Zambia, where her younger brother was born.
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When Thandiwe Newton was three years old, she returned with her family to England, where they settled in Penzance so her father could help run his family's antique business.
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Thandiwe Newton studied dance at the Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, then studied at Downing College, Cambridge, where she obtained a degree in social anthropology in 1995.
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Thandiwe Newton made her film debut in the coming of age comedy-drama Flirting, filmed in 1989 but shelved for two years.
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Thandiwe Newton was credited as "Thandie Newton" and subsequently continued to use this name professionally.
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Thandiwe Newton then portrayed the slave "Yvette" in the Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise film Interview with the Vampire.
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Thandiwe Newton appeared in the Merchant Ivory production of Jefferson in Paris as Sally Hemings.
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Thandiwe Newton starred as Nyah Nordoff-Hall, again opposite Cruise, in Mission: Impossible 2.
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Thandiwe Newton's next role was in the low-budget film It Was an Accident, written by her husband, screenwriter Ol Parker.
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Between 2003 and 2005, Thandiwe Newton played Makemba "Kem" Likasu, love interest of John Carter on the American television series ER.
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Thandiwe Newton reprised the role for the series finale in 2009.
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Thandiwe Newton won a BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actress in 2006 for her role in Crash.
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Thandiwe Newton played Chris Gardner's wife, Linda Gardner, in The Pursuit of Happyness.
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Also in 2006, Thandiwe Newton performed on radio in a pantomime version of Cinderella.
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In 2007, Thandiwe Newton co-starred with Eddie Murphy as his love interest in the comedy Norbit.
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Thandiwe Newton played opposite Simon Pegg as his ex-girlfriend in the 2008 comedy Run Fatboy Run.
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Thandiwe Newton was an introducer at Wembley Stadium on 7 July 2007, for the UK leg of Live Earth.
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Thandiwe Newton was due to introduce former US Vice President Al Gore to the concert, but he was delayed, leaving Newton to tell jokes in an attempt to entertain the audience.
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Thandiwe Newton next portrayed fictional US First Daughter Laura Wilson in 2012, a disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich and released 13 November 2009.
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In 2013, Thandiwe Newton starred in Rogue, the first original drama series for DirecTV's Audience Network.
25.
From 2016 to 2022, Thandiwe Newton portrayed Maeve Millay in HBO science fiction drama series Westworld, for which she garnered universal acclaim.
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Thandiwe Newton received several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, two Critics' Choice Awards, and nominations for a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award.
27.
Thandiwe Newton appeared as Val in the Star Wars film Solo: 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.
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Thandiwe Newton became the first Black woman to have a major non-alien role in a Star 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.
29.
Thandiwe Newton said that she would attempt to have corrections applied to her past performance credits.
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In 2022, Thandiwe Newton played the lead role of Sandra Guidry in the thriller God's Country which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
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In 2006, Thandiwe Newton contributed a foreword to We Wish: Hopes and Dreams of Cornwall's Children, a book of children's writing published in aid of the NSPCC.
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In 2008, Thandiwe Newton visited the poverty-stricken village of Nampasso in Mali, describing it as a "humbling experience".
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In 2013, Thandiwe Newton led the One Billion Rising flash mob in London for justice, gender equality, and an end to violence.
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Thandiwe Newton married English filmmaker Ol Parker in 1998, and they separated in 2022.
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Thandiwe Newton is currently in a relationship with American musician Elijah Dias, better known by his stage name Lonr, who is 24 years younger than her.
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Thandiwe Newton is a vegan and was named PETA's "Sexiest Vegan of 2014" in the UK.
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Thandiwe Newton was ranked one of the best-dressed women in 2018 by fashion website Net-a-Porter.
38.
In 2020, Thandiwe Newton was one of a number of celebrities and MPs who signed a letter opposing the deportation of 50 violent offenders from the UK to Jamaica.