Thandie Newton

After being in a relationship with director John Duigan for six years, she married writer, producer and director Ol Parker in 1998 with whom she has two daughters named Ripley and Nico, and a son named Booker Jombe.

She has been an activist in the field of child welfare and has written a foreword, comprising of her childhood memories of growing up in Cornwall. The book was titled as ‘We Wish: Hopes and Dreams of Cornwall’s Children’.

Newton was deeply moved on her visit to Mali, where she saw the plight of poverty-stricken women. Having been a victim of sexual exploitation, she joined the ‘One Billion Rising’ movement against rape and sexual violence against women. She has been fighting for gender equality and justice for women ever since.

Melanie Thandiwe Newton, better known as Thandie Newton, was born on 6 November 1972 in Westminster, London, UK. Her mother, Nyasha, is a Zimbabwean and her father, Nick Newton, is an Englishman, who worked as a laboratory technician and artist. She lived in Zambia during her early childhood, till her family had to move to England due to political unrest in Zambia. She has a younger brother named Jamie.

Thandie grew up in the port town of Penzance in Cornwall, England and learned dancing at the Tring Park School for the Performing Arts. However, she had to give up dancing due to a back injury. She graduated from Downing College, Cambridge with a degree in Social Anthropology. During her childhood, she felt a bit out of place because of her black ethnicity.

She began a relationship with Australian film director John Duigan at the age of 16 and maintained it for six years. During this period, she was cast in his film ‘Flirting’ with Ben Mendelsohn and Noah Taylor. She moved to Los Angeles, California, to pursue an acting career but later returned to London.

After playing the role of Thandiwe Adjewa in the movie ‘Flirting’ in 1991, she went on to appear in minor roles in movies, ‘The Young Americans’ and ‘Loaded’. She also got a role in the television film ‘Pirate Prince’ which helped her to make a mark in show business.

She got a big break in 1994 when she played the role of a faithful house slave in the movie ‘Interview with the Vampire’ which featured stars like Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. This was followed by her role in the film ‘Jefferson in Paris’, in which she portrays an enslaved woman of mixed origin named Sally Hemings, who was owned by President Thomas Jefferson and is believed to have been the mother of six of his children.

Because of her ethnicity, she kept getting similar roles which required her to represent the downtrodden black community. In the movie ‘Beloved’, she displayed her acting skills while portraying the ghost of a young slave girl who gets killed by her mother. Her performance matched that of stars like Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover who were part of the cast.

She then appeared with Tom Cruise in the hit movie ‘Mission: Impossible 2’.This was followed by her role in ‘It Was an Accident’, a movie which was written by her husband, Ol Parker. Her next movie, ‘The Truth About Charlie’ earned her a nomination for Best Actress at the Black Reel Awards ceremony.

She then appeared in the telefilm, ‘In Your Dreams’ in 1997 and in the medical drama series, ‘ER’, in which she had a recurring role from 2003 to 2009. Her other recurring role from 2013 to 2015 was in the police drama series ‘Rogue’. She also gave an award-winning performance in the science fiction series ‘Westworld’ in 2016.

Her movies include ‘Flirting’ (1991), ‘Interview with the Vampire’ (1994), ‘Jefferson in Paris’ (1995), ‘Besieged’ (1998), ‘Beloved’ (1998), ‘Mission: Impossible 2’ (2000), ‘It Was an Accident’ (2000), ‘The Truth About Charlie’ (2002), ‘Crash’ (2004), ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ (2006), ‘For Colored Girls’ (2010) and ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ (2013).

She has appeared in television series, such as ‘Pirate Prince’ (1991), ‘In Your Dreams’ (1997), ‘ER’ (2003 – 2009), ‘American Dad!’ (2006), ‘Rogue’ (2013 – 2015), ‘The Slap’ (2015), ‘Westworld’ (2016) and ‘Line of Duty’ (2017).