Thandiwe Newton

Thandiwe Newton is a British actress with a career spanning over three decades, known for her compelling performances in both independent and blockbuster films. Born on November 6, 1972, in Westminster, London, to a Zimbabwean mother and English father, she grew up in Cornwall and London. She began acting as a teenager, landing her first major film role in John Duigan’s Flirting (1991) alongside Nicole Kidman and Noah Taylor.

Newton established herself as a versatile dramatic actress through the 1990s and 2000s with acclaimed performances in films such as Jefferson in Paris (1995), Beloved (1998) opposite Oprah Winfrey, and Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), which brought her mainstream Hollywood recognition. Her portrayal of a distraught mother in Crash (2004) earned her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and remains one of the most emotionally powerful performances of the decade.

Her career reached new heights with the role of Maeve Millay in HBO’s Westworld (2016-2022). The performance earned her a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2018, making her one of the first Black British actresses to win in that category. She also appeared in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), further raising her global profile.

Thandiwe has been outspoken about diversity and representation in the entertainment industry and reclaimed the original spelling of her name (Thandiwe, meaning beloved in Shona) in 2021 after it had been misspelled as Thandie throughout her career. Her decades of work across prestigious films and television, combined with brand endorsements, has built her estimated net worth to approximately $8 million as of 2026.