Thandiwe Newton

**Melanie Thandiwe Newton OBE** (/ˈtændiːweɪ/ TAN-dee-way; born 6 November 1972), formerly credited as Thandie Newton (/ˈtændi/ TAN-dee), is a **British actress**. She has received various awards, including a **Primetime Emmy Award**, a **BAFTA Award**, and nominations for two **Golden Globe Awards**. Moreover, she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to film and charity. Having played a plethora of roles in her illustrious career, she's known for starring roles such as the title character in Beloved (1998), Nyah Nordoff-Hall in Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), Dame Vaako in The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), and Maeve Millay in Westworld (2016–2022), among others. Born in the Westminster area of London on 6 November 1972, Thandiwe did not fit into her environment as the black atheist kid in an all-white Catholic school. She later changed her middle name to make it 'Thandie'. She studied at Downing College, Cambridge, where she obtained a degree in social anthropology in 1995. Newton's film career officially kicked off with a debut role in Flirting (1991). She delivered stunning performances which earned her the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and a nomination for a Screen Actors Guild Award, to mention a few. In 2017, she served as a narrator for the documentary entitled *Bill Cosby: Fall of an American Icon*, an exposé on the sexual assault charges laid against Cosby, and received a BAFTA TV Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in BBC One's Line of Duty.