Whilst we laud our black male actors who are tearing it up in the States and note our black female leads who are impacting movie land, Pride discovers there are a large number of black british female actors who unknown to most of us in the UK are major stars on American TV. Omne Okwuosa investigates.
It’s an age old tale; London trains up the world’s best actors, inculcating them with classic skills from renowned academies and before long, they’re getting that Hollywood call. We know all about the success Idris Elba, David Harewood and Lennie James have been enjoying in America. Gritty thugster, Idris owned his role on The Wire before moving on to bigger things, while Harewood jumped at the chance to work on hit show Homeland. Lesser known Lennie left the sunny shores of south London and nestled into Hollywood’s nook with the critically acclaimed Jericho and The Walking Dead. However it’s the black British actresses who’re making the most of America’s abundant supply of vitamin D, both on the big and small screen, but most of us never hear or talk about it.
Ok, we all know London-born Naomie Harris is currently the leading lady in epic bio Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, while Sophie Okonedo has played a range of roles. She’s been a hand-for-a-foot mutant in Aeon Flux and drenched our cheeks in Hotel Rwanda. From Tupac in Gridlock’d to Whoopi Goldberg in For Colored Girls, Thandie Newton’s worked with the best of them. And if you wondered why you have not seen her recently it’s because she has now been claimed by American TV and is now starring in the new hard-hitting US TV show Rogue, playing Grace, a foul mouthed undercover detective struggling against frayed emotions and questionable morals to be the best mother and wife she can.
Now if you look a bit deeper you realise that a huge range of black females British actors are finding huge success on the American small screen too. Freema Agyeman probably couldn’t help being drawn back in time to the 1980s, playing mentor of sorts to the high-school version of Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw. So used to travelling across time and space in the hugely successful Doctor Who, Freema is now currently enjoying her second season of wowing American audiences in The Carrie Diaries.
Ashley Madekwe played the power hungry and oh so proper Ashley Davenport in the smash US show Revenge. When life isn’t playing fair apparently taking matters into your own hands is the only way to get ahead. The London-born actress paints a character that’s a force to be reckoned with amongst the Hampton’s high-society exclusive and elite.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw no doubt had many folks seething and fitting with jealousy when she played the gun toting wife to Boris Kodjoe in the series Undercovers. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, she bagged leading lady alongside Kiefer Sutherland in the high octane, award winning Touch.
While the massively popular White Collar attracted Manchester native Marsha Thomason and has made her a regular on US television since 2009. It seems success for black British actresses is common place across all genres and there doesn’t seem to be a shortage of well written characters and scripts. Whether Christine Adams is holding her own in the futuristic TV series Terra Nova or the dramatic Jerry Bruckheimer production The Whole Truth we find that British black actresses are actually outstripping the success of our more celebrated black male actors. And with the rise of new TV networks like Netflicks who are revolutionising television with Hollywood movie size budget TV shows, like House of Cards, which spend over $100 million on it’s first series – American TV is without doubt the place to be.
So let’s tip our hat to the ladies who’re getting stuck into the more challenging roles, wrapping their tongues around those dodgy twanging accents and digging deep to deliver performances that make them stand out from their American counterparts. After all that, they feel no need for breast beating or shouting about their successes, they’re ladies dontchya know!
