Danai Gurira

At 46 years old, Danai Gurira has this physical status:

Career

In Liberia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, Gurira taught playwriting and acting. As a senior at Macalester College in 2001, one of her first memorable performances came in 2001. When the Rainbow Is Enuf, directed and choreographed by Dale Ricardo Shields, Gurira appeared in a production of the Ntozake Shange play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide. Shields said, "She was a very intelligent, strong, and independent young lady." "She approached her studies, her classes, with a lot of enthusiasm, and you can see the same things in her role in 'Black Panther.'

Gurira said she began writing plays in an attempt to better utilize her skills as an actress and to tell stories that depict ideas about strong women with whom she identifies. She has been commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Playwrights Horizons, and the Royal Court as a playwright.

In the Continuum, Gurira co-wrote and co-starred, first at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and later Off-Broadway, earning her an Obie Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and a Helen Hayes Award for Best Lead Actress. In December 2011, the Continuum commemorated World AIDS Day 2011. The play was produced at Harare's Theatre and featured two women who were navigating the globe after contracting HIV. It was funded by the United States Embassy in Zimbabwe.

In 2009, Gurira made her acting debut on Broadway in Joe Turner's Come and Gone, portraying Martha Pentecost.

The Convert, Gurira's 2012 play The Convert was premiered as a joint effort between the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the McCarter Theatre in New Jersey. Later this year, Gurira was named the Whiting Award for an emerging playwright.

Familiar, a play written by Gurira and directed by Rebecca Taichman, opened in January 2015 at Yale Repertory Theatre. Playwrights Horizons in New York premiered it Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in New York later this year. The play is about family, cultural identity, and the personal life of a first-generation American, and Gurira has said that her family and friends inspired it in part.

Lupita Nyong'o appeared in Gurira's opera Eclipsed (2009), Off-Broadway at The Public Theater, in 2015. In 2016, the play will return to Broadway at the John Golden Theatre, according to the producers. It was the first play to premiere on Broadway with a predominantly female and black cast and creative staff. Three women are enslaved to a rebel king, as well as one of his former wives, a humanitarian worker, and how they cope with this difficult situation are portrayed in war-torn Liberia. Lupita Nyong'o, Akosua Busia, Saycon Sengbloh, Zainab Jah, and Pascale Armand were among the film's directors, Liesl Tommy. In an article in The New York Times, a photograph of Colonel Black Diamond, a female liberation fighter from Liberia, inspired Gurira's play. "Just to see these women standing there, you know, in their jeans,... fashionable tops, and their hair is all finished, and they're all carrying AK-47s. The photograph sparked suspicion about Liberia's fourteen-year civil wars as well as a forensic trip to Liberia in 2007. More than 30 women were beaten, among whose children who had been kidnapped by rebel fighters and turned into sex slaves, was interviewed by Gurira. She also spoke to female peace campaigners who were instrumental in ending the violence. The women in Eclipse were chosen from the people Gurira encountered on her travels, while the fifth character is unidentified, according to the women.

"Danai Gurira gives American theater a fresh new voice." Eclipsed was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play and received the Tony Award for Best Costume Design in a Play.

In 2007, Gurira appeared in The Visitor, which received the Best Supporting Actress Award at the Method Fest Independent Film Festival. She appeared in the 2008 film Ghost Town, 3 Backyards, and My Soul to Take, as well as the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Life on Mars, and Law & Order. She appeared in the HBO drama series Treme from 2010 to 2011.

In March 2012, AMC announced on live broadcast that Gurira would appear in their horror-drama series The Walking Dead, the most rated series in cable television history, would premiere in AMC's third season. Michonne is a vivacious, katana-wielding person who joins a close-knit group in an apocalyptic setting. For the series, Gurira had to learn how to ride horses, which she loved because it was a physical challenge. According to reports, Gurira will have left the show after she had filmed her last episodes during the tenth season in February 2019. "What We Become" Gurira's last episode aired in March 2020, and by the time she announced her resignation, she had been second billed in the opening credits.

In 2013, Gurira appeared in director Andrew Dosunmu's independent drama film Mother of George, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Gurira received acclaim for her role as a Nigerian woman attempting to live in the United States. At the 2013 Guys Choice Awards, Gurira received the Jean-Claude Gahd Dam award.

In All Eyez on Me, a 2017 biopic about the rapper Tupac Shakur's mother, Afeni Shakur, she played rapper Tupac Shakur's mother, Afeni Shakur. She appeared in Marvel's Black Panther, which was released in February 2018. She starred Okoye, the Dora Milaje's personal bodyguards, and received acclaim for her performance. Both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame were released in 2018 and 2019, respectively, and Gurira resurrects Okoye. She signed a 25-year contract with ABC Studios in 2020.

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