Early life
Newton was born in London, England, the daughter of Nyasha, a Zimbabwean health-care worker, and Nick Newton, an English[5][6]laboratory technician and artist.[7]
Her birthplace has been incorrectly reported to be Zambia in some biographies,[8] but she has confirmed in interviews that she was born in London.[9][10][11] The name "Thandiwe" means "beloved"[12] in Ndebele, Zulu, Xhosa or Swazi, and "Thandie" is pronounced/ˈtændi/ tan-dee in English. According to Newton, her mother is a Shona princess.[13][14]
Regarding her childhood, Newton remarked at a TED conference: "From about the age of 5, I was aware that I didn't fit. I was the black, atheist kid in the all-white, Catholic school run by nuns. I was an anomaly."[15] Brought up in London and Penzance, Cornwall, she studied dance at the Tring Park School for the Performing Arts and at sixteen, while recovering from a back injury, she successfully auditioned for her first film role.[16] She then went on to study social anthropology at Downing College, Cambridge, from 1992 to 1995, where she achieved a 2:1.[17]
Career
Newton made her film debut in Flirting (1991). She played the role of Brad Pitt's maid Yvette in Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994).
She gained international recognition in the Merchant Ivory production of Jefferson in Paris as Sally Hemings, which led to her being cast in Jonathan Demme's Beloved (1998), in which she played the title character with co-stars Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. She played the female lead Nyah Hall in the film Mission: Impossible II. She was originally expected to play Alex Munday in the film Charlie's Angels, but turned it down to appear in the low-budget film It Was an Accident.[18] Lucy Liu was ultimately given the part.
Between 2003 and 2005, Newton played Makemba "Kem" Likasu, the love interest, and later wife of Dr. John Carter on the American television seriesER. She reprised the role once more for the series finale in 2009. In 2004 also appeared in The Chronicles of Riddick and Crash. In the latter, she played Christine Thayer, a wealthy black woman who, along with her husband, finds herself the target of a racist policeman (played by Matt Dillon), who sexually assaults Thayer but then later saves her life after he is the first on the scene at a car crash. Newton was honoured with a BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actress in 2006 for her role in Crash. She also played Chris Gardner's wife, Linda Gardner, in The Pursuit of Happyness. In addition to her film and television credits she played the title role in a 2006 radio pantomime version of Cinderella.[19]
In 2007, she starred with Eddie Murphy in the comedy Norbit as his love interest, and opposite Simon Pegg as his ex-girlfriend in the comedy Run Fat Boy Run. Newton next portrayed U.S. National Security Advisor-turned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in W., Oliver Stone's film biography of President George W. Bush. The film was released 17 October 2008.
Newton was an introducer at Wembley Stadium on 7 July 2007 for the UK leg of Live Earth. She was due to introduce Al Gore to the concert, but he was delayed, leaving Newton to tell jokes in an attempt to entertain the audience.[20] Newton next portrayed the United States President's First Daughter Laura Wilson in 2012, a disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich and released 13 November 2009.
In July 2011, Newton delivered a TED Talk on "Embracing otherness, embracing myself". In it, she discussed finding her "otherness" as a child growing up in two distinct cultures, and as an actress playing with many different selves.[21] In 2012, she starred alongside Tyler Perry in the romantic drama film Good Deeds. In 2013, Thandie starred in Rogue, the first original drama series for DirecTV's Audience Network.[22]
Personal life
Newton married English writer, director, and producer Ol Parker in 1998. They have three children: daughters Ripley (born in 2000) and Nico (born in 2004), and son Booker Jombe (born in 2014).[23] Her daughters were named after the character Ellen Ripley in the Alien films and the singer Nico.[citation needed] Newton had home births with all three of her children.[23]
In 2006, 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. In it, she writes vividly about her childhood memories of growing up in Cornwall and the way in which the county's vibrant cultural heritage made it easy for her to "enrich every situation with layers of magic and meaning".[24] In 2008, Newton visited poverty-stricken Mali, describing it as a "humbling experience". She visited the village of Nampasso in the Ségou Region of the country.[25] Newton swapped her BMW X5 for a Toyota Prius after protesters bombarded the car with eggs at the gates of her daughters’ school. She then wrote to her celebrity friends, asking them to join her in switching to more environmentally sound cars.[26]
David Schwimmer (who directed Run Fatboy Run) called the actress "the queen of practical jokes".[27] Newton has expressed an affinity with Buddhism.[28][29] In 2013, Thandie led the One Billion Rising flash mob in London, for an end to violence, and for justice and gender equality.[30]
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