Danai Jekesai Gurira is a Zimbabwean-American actress and playwright. She is best known for her role as Michonne on the AMC drama series The Walking Dead.
Drama Desk Special Award, Saturn Award, Satellite Award for Best Television Ensemble, Obie Award for Special Citations, Outer Critics Circle Award for John Gassner Playwriting Award, Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress, Non-Resident Production, The Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding...
Nominations
Tony Award for Best Play, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Ensemble Performance, Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play, Outer Critics Ci...
Movies
Black Panther, All Eyez on Me, Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast, Mother of George, Restless City, My Soul to Take, 3 Backyards, Ghost Town, The Visitor
TV Shows
The Walking Dead
Star Sign
Aquarius
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Quote
1
I was a jock when I was a kid, so I've always wanted to physically live through a character - one of those really tough chicks.
2
[on preparing to play a sword-wielding zombie slayer in 'the Walking Dead']I do have some dings on my apartment wall from tricks I was attempting at home. I don't advise that.
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Fact
1
She was born in Iowa but lived in her parents' native Zimbabwe from age 5 until age 18, when she returned to the U.S. to attend college.
2
She has two older sisters, Shingai and Choni, and an older brother, Tare.
3
She was awarded the 2012 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Writing for "The Convert," in a co-production with McCarter Theatre Center and Goodman Theatre at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
4
She was awarded the 2013 NAACP Theatre Award for Best Playwright for "The Convert" co-production with McCarter Theatre Center and Goodman Theatre at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
5
When Gurira's play "Eclipsed" was produced at the Yale Repertory Theater in 2009, the lead role of "the Girl" was performed by actress Adepero Oduye and understudied by then-Yale Drama School student Lupita Nyong'o. A few years later, Oduye and Nyong'o both acted in the film 12 Years a Slave, and Nyong'o won an Oscar for that performance. When the same play was produced at New York's Public Theater six years later, Nyong'o this time played the lead role.
6
She was nominated for a 2007 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actress in a Principal Role in a Play for "In the Continuum", at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.
$500 Thousand
