Biography
Sophie was born in England to a Nigerian father and British mother. As she grew up, she never considered being an actress but
looking at her career so far, it would be difficult to imagine her
doing anything else. She got her start in a writing workshop with renowned novelist and playwright, Hanif Kureishi. She didnt
really desire to be a writer, thinking of it purely as something interesting to do at night, which was just as well as she
discovered that writing was not for her. However, it became apparent that she was very good at reading aloud other people's
work, which eventually led to her involvement with the Royal Court Theatre, from where she then won a scholarship to RADA where
she was able to truly step out on the path to becomming an actress.
After a series of theatrical roles, including Shahrazad in The Arabian Nights and Anippe in Christopher Marlowes
Tamburlaine the Great, Okonedo broke through with an acclaimed performance as Cressida in Troilus and Cressida, staged by famed
theatrical director Trevor Nunn for the National Theatre. Though the only Shakespeare role of her career, Okonedo earned high
praise for her ability to project a tense ambiguity between love and passion. The success of her Cressida led the actress to
British television: she appeared in various television series and films such as
Casualty,
The Bill,
Staying Alive,
Clocking Off,
Spooks and various others. Her performance in
Never Never (2000), earned her a Royal Television
Society Award nomination for playing a single mum.
From British television, Okonedo made a quick jump to film. Though she had several small parts in major features,
including two lines as a princess in
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), and as a nameless Jamaican Girl in
The Jackal (1997),
she made a deep impression with her characterization of a prostitute living in a rundown West London hotel in Stephen Frears
Dirty Pretty Things (2003).
She was then cast in her highest profile role to date as Tatiana Rusesabagina, the wife of a hotel manager (Don Cheadle),
who houses 1200 Tutsi refugees fleeing the 1994 genocide in
Hotel Rwanda (2004). Acclaim for both the film and its
performances was bestowed by critics, as Okonedo received nominations from the Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards for Best
Supporting Actress. To prepare for the challenging role, Okonedo read Season of Blood: A Rwandan Journey, by Fergal Keane, then
went to Brussels to meet the real-life Tatiana. The topic of the genocide was avoidedO. konedo asked about her relationship with
Paul and what she liked to eat. The cultural leap of transforming herself from a London woman to a Rwandan refugee turned out to
be her biggest challenge on the film, though two weeks of torrential rain and a sudden loss of financing were also on the list.
After Hotel Rwanda, Okonedo returned to the Hollywood system and was cast in the long-awaited film version of the popular
MTV series, Aeon Flux (2005), followed by a moving performance in television film
Tsunami, the Aftermath, an ensemble drama
that depicted various stories involving the devastating 2004 tidal wave that destroyed large portions of Thailand and other
parts of South Asia. Okonedo played a mother searching frantically with her husband (Chiwetel Ejiofor) for their 6-year-old
daughter after the tsunami literally ripped her from their arms. She earned a nomination for a 2006 Golden Globe Award for Best
Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.
In 2007, Sophie appeared in
Martian Child, a film about a man who adopts a child, in a relatively brief role.
However, she followed up by appearing as
Nancy in BBC mini-series production of
Oliver Twist. She has recently
completed work on
Skin, based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South
Africa during the apartheid era; where she plays the adult version of the girl, Sandra Laing; and is currently filming the film
adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Sue Monk Kidd,
The Secret Life of Bees, in which she plays one of the lead roles,
May Boatwright.
- Edited from information written by Copyright ©
Baseline 2006.
