Danai Gurira

Danai Jekesai Gurira is an International actress and a play writer. She is active in increasing awareness about natural calamities and helps in teaching acting skills in Africa. She took birth in Iowa, the United States on 14th February 1978.

She came into the from the Television series, the Walking Dead. As a play writer she wrote the play Eclipsed and The Convent. Danai played the role of Okoye in the Marvel movie Black Panther Click to look into! >> Read More... and Avengers-Infinity War.

She is multilingual and lives in Los Angeles, California; she speaks French, English, and Shona. She took birth in Iowa, the United States on 14th February 1978. Her family had migrated from Zimbabwe in the year 1964. Her parents are Roger Gurira and Josephine Gurira; Danai is the youngest of four siblings, her sisters are Shingai, and Choni Gurira; while her brother is Tare Gurira.

Her mother worked as a college librarian, and her father worked as a lecturer of Chemistry at Grinnell College. Later, her parents started working at University of Wisconsin–Platteville. She spent her childhood in Zimbabwe and went to the Dominican Convent High School, Harare.

After schooling, she went back to the USA and enrolled in Macalester College, Minnesota; she graduated with a B.A degree in psychology. Afterward, Danai went to the New York University and did Masters in Fine Arts. In the year 2005, she wrote the play In the Continuum; she wanted to write and act to convey her ideas and tell stories to the audience.

Her play premiered at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and Broadway, it won her a Helen Hayes Award, an Obie Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award. She also starred in her play and performed it in Harare’s Theatre on World AIDS Day 2011. In 2009, she debuted in Come and Gone, a play by August Wilson on Broadway. She played Martha Pentecost.

In 2012, she won Whiting Award for an emerging play writer; The Convert got premiered McCarter Theatre in New Jersey. As a play writer, Danai got commissioned by the Royal Court, Center Theatre Group, Yale Repertory Theatre, etc.

In 2015, her play Eclipsed became the first theatre act with all black demale cast to premiere at Broadway. Danai also acted in movies like The Visitor Click to look into! >> Read More... , Mother of George, Ghost Town, Black Panther and Avengers-Infinity War.

For her performances she has received Saturn Award Best Supporting Actor, Black Reel Best Actress Award, etc. As an activist, Danai founded Love our Girls in 2016 and co-founded Almasi Arts Inc. to support art and theatre.