American actress and singer

Amandla Stenberg ( hold October 23, 1998 ) is an american actress and singer. She [ a ] was included in Time ‘s list of Most influential Teens in both 2015 and 2016, [ 2 ] [ 3 ] and has received several accolades, including a adolescent Choice Award, an NAACP Image Award, and nominations for four Black Reel Awards and a Critics ‘ Choice Award. Stenberg made her act introduction with the film Colombiana ( 2011 ), and had her breakthrough bet Rue in the film The Hunger Games ( 2012 ), for which she won the Teen Choice Award for Best Chemistry. She had the recurring function of Macey Irving in the serial Sleepy Hollow ( 2013–2014 ), voiced Bia in Rio 2 ( 2014 ) and starred as Halle Foster in the situation comedy Mr. Robinson ( 2015 ). She garnered applaud for her portrayals of Maddy Whittier in Everything, Everything ( 2017 ) and as Starr Carter in the film The Hate U Give ( 2018 ), the latter of which won her the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture and earned her a nominating speech for the Critics ‘ Choice Award for Best Young Actor/Actress. Stenberg besides starred as Ruby in The Darkest Minds ( 2018 ), Leyna in Where Hands Touch ( 2018 ) and Julie in the Netflix miniseries The Eddy ( 2020 ). She is set to star in The Acolyte.

Stenberg has been recognized for her outspoken views, particularly towards her activism for LGBT young person, which has received meaning media coverage. In 2015, she made her musical debut as part of the folk-rock couple Honeywater. Her single, “ Let My Baby Stay ” was featured in the film Everything, Everything ( 2018 ) .

early life

Amandla Stenberg was born in Los Angeles, California, the child of Karen Brailsford, an african-american spiritual counselor and writer, and Tom Stenberg, who is Danish. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] Her paternal grandma had Greenlandic Inuit ancestry. [ 8 ] Stenberg has two older half-sisters on her father ‘s side. [ 9 ] [ 10 ] Her first appoint means “ baron “ or “ strength ” in the south african languages of IsiXhosa and Zulu. [ 11 ] At age four, Stenberg started doing catalogue modeling shoots for Disney. [ 1 ] She has appeared in commercials for clients such as Boeing. [ 12 ] [ 13 ]

career

2011–2016 : early roles and breakthrough

In 2011, she appeared in her first feature film, Colombiana, as a younger translation of Zoe Saldana ‘s character. [ 14 ] Her discovery came at the senesce of 14, when she was cast as Rue in the 2012 film The Hunger Games. [ 15 ] The film was a critical and fiscal success, [ 16 ] [ 17 ] and Stenberg ‘s performance was praised. She received a number of awards and nominations, including a Black Reel Award nomination. [ 18 ] In 2013, she was cast in the short circuit film Mercy playing the daughter of Robin Thicke and Paula Patton ; Thicke directed the film. [ 19 ] [ 20 ] Stenberg had a recurring role on season one of Sleepy Hollow from 2013 to 2014. [ 21 ] In 2013, Stenberg began performing on the violin and cantabile harmonies at Los Angeles venues with singer-songwriter Zander Hawley. In 2014, Stenberg voiced Bia in the animate film Rio 2, which was a commercial success. [ 22 ] [ 23 ] In 2015, Stenberg released her first EP in August 2015 as the folk-rock couple Honeywater. In 2015, she released the video recording “ Do n’t Cash Crop My Cornrows ”. [ 24 ] She played serial even Halle Foster on the ephemeral serial Mr. Robinson, which ran in 2015. [ 25 ] Stenberg co-wrote the comedian reserve Niobe: She is Life with Sebastian Jones, which was illustrated by Ashley A. Woods, and published in November 2015. [ 26 ] [ 27 ] It is the first nationally distributed comedian that has a black woman as its supporter, writer, and another as the artist. [ 28 ] In 2016, Stenberg appeared in the music video for Lemonade by Beyoncé, [ 29 ] and won the BET YoungStars Award. [ 30 ] In the lapp year, she signed with The Society, a model agency. [ 31 ] besides in 2016, Stenberg had auditioned for the function of Shuri in the superhero movie Black Panther, however, she walked away because she felt that she was not correct for the function. She told Variety in 2018 : “ It was so elating to see it fulfilled by people who should have been a partially of it and who deserved it and who were correctly for it. I just was n’t. ” [ 32 ] [ 33 ] The role was rather given to actress Letitia Wright .

2017–present : critical acclaim

In 2017, Stenberg and Sebastian Jones released Niobe: She is Death, the irregular character of the trilogy. [ 34 ] In the same year, she starred in the amatory play Everything, Everything, directed by Stella Meghie, [ 35 ] [ 36 ] and co-star Nick Robinson. Her single, “ Let My Baby Stay ”, was featured in the film ‘s soundtrack. [ 37 ] She received praise for her operation, and earned a Teen Choice Award nomination. [ 38 ] In 2018, she played the star function of Starr Carter in the contemporaneous play The Hate U Give, based on the novel of the same identify, which is about the Black Lives Matter motion. The movie was received positively, [ 39 ] and Stenberg received critical applaud for her operation, with the magazine Rolling Stone writing “ It is impossible to over-praise Stenberg ‘s incandescent performance, a gather storm that grows in ferocity and feel with each picture. ” [ 39 ] The film ‘s director, George Tillman Jr. wrote that “ She has this ability to make you feel like you ‘re seeing the real distribute, which comes from a tied of dedication to the material that ‘s rare at any age. ” [ 40 ] She earned several awards and nominations for the function, which include winning an NAACP Image Award and being nominated for a Critics ‘ Choice Award. [ 41 ] [ 42 ] In belated 2018, Stenberg starred in Amma Asante ‘s World War II play Where Hands Touch. [ 43 ] [ 44 ] In 2019, Stenberg portrayed Elizabeth Eckford, a 15 year old female child who in 1957 was among a group of nine black students who were initially prevented from entering a racially segregated eminent educate in Little Rock, during a section on the television receiver appearance Drunk History ( 2019 ). [ 45 ] In May 2019, she joined the cast of the Netflix miniseries The Eddy, [ 46 ] which was released on May 8, 2020. That lapp calendar month, she signed on to star in the remake of the 1996 thriller movie Fear. [ 47 ] In August 2020, she was cast as Alana Beck in Stephen Chbosky ‘s film adaptation of the broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen. She will besides collaborate with the indicate ‘s composers, Pasek and Paul, on a new sung being written specifically for her fictional character, whose character was expanded upon from the degree version. [ 48 ] In 2021 Stenberg was cast in the main function for the approaching series The Acolyte. [ 49 ] [ 50 ]

personal life sentence

In 2016, Stenberg announced via Instagram that she would be studying filmmaking at New York University Tisch School of the Arts. [ 51 ] [ 52 ] [ 53 ] She ultimately decided against attending the school, as she found herself booking jobs, and alternatively chose to continue with her acting career. [ 54 ] [ 55 ] [ 56 ] [ 57 ] Stenberg is non-binary, [ 58 ] [ 59 ] and uses both ‘she/her/hers ‘ and ‘they/them/theirs ‘ pronouns. [ 60 ] [ 61 ] She has previously said that she was bisexual [ 62 ] [ 63 ] [ 64 ] and pansexual. [ 65 ] In June 2018, in an consultation with Wonderland magazine, she came out as gay. [ 66 ] [ 67 ] From early 2018 to late 2018, Stenberg dated singer Mikaela Mullaney Straus, better known by her phase name King Princess. [ 68 ] In a July 2017 interview, Stenberg said she had stopped using a smartphone, and that she thought phones and social media can have a negative effect on mental health. [ 69 ] Dazed cartridge holder named Stenberg “ one of the most incendiary voices of her coevals ” when it featured her on its fall 2015 cover. [ 70 ] She was included in Time ‘s number of Most influential Teens in 2015, and again in 2016. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] In 2016, she was included in the number of SuperSoul 100 list of visionaries and influential leaders by Oprah Winfrey. [ 71 ] Stenberg is an intersectional feminist. [ 26 ] [ 72 ] She is outspoken about her political views in interviews and on social media, and was named “ Feminist of the year ” in 2015 by the Ms. Foundation for Women. [ 73 ] [ 74 ] She has spoken publicly on social media about cultural annexation. [ 62 ] Her video recording, “ Do n’t Cash Crop My Cornrows ” admonished Kylie Jenner for adopting that traditionally african-american hairdo. [ 24 ] In April 2016, Stenberg gave a manner of speaking at WE Day California, a WE Charity event. [ 75 ]

Filmography

film

television

Music video

Year Title Artist(s) Role
2016 “Lemonade” Beyoncé Herself [29]

Awards and nominations

Stenberg ‘s accolades include an NAACP Image Award, a Teen Choice Award, and nominations for four Black Reel Awards and a Critics ‘ Choice Award. She has besides won awards for her activism .

Notes

  1. ^ Stenberg uses she/her and they/them pronouns. This article uses she/her pronouns for consistency

References

Read more: Willem Dafoe