Danai Gurira

Danai Jekesai Gurira (; born February 14, 1978) is an American and Zimbabwean actress, playwright, screenwriter, producer, and activist. She is best known for her starring roles as Michonne in the AMC horror drama franchise The Walking Dead and Okoye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Her films have grossed $6.98 billion, making her the seventh highest-grossing actress of all time.

As a playwright, Gurira wrote the play In the Continuum, for which she won an Obie Award, as well as The Convert, Familiar and Eclipsed, the latter of which was nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Play. For the screen, she's written an episode of the spin-off The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live (2024), centered on the characters Michonne and Rick Grimes, which received critical acclaim. For this episode, she received a Black Reel TV Award nomination for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series.

She has been a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador since 2018, She is the founder of the production company Gurazoo Productions, which has an overall television deal with ABC Studios.

Early life and education Gurira was born on February 14, 1978, in Grinnell, Iowa, to Josephine Gurira, a college librarian, and Roger Gurira, a tenured professor in the Department of Chemistry at Grinnell College (both parents later joined the staff of University of Wisconsin–Platteville). Her parents moved from Southern Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe, to the United States in 1964. She is the youngest of four siblings; Shingai and Choni are her sisters and Tare, her brother. after Robert Mugabe rose to power in 1980.

She attended high school at Dominican Convent High School. At 19, she returned to the United States to study at Macalester College

Theater and playwriting Gurira said that she began writing plays in an effort to better utilize her strengths as an actress, and to tell stories that convey ideas about strong women with whom she identifies.

As a playwright, she has been commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Playwrights Horizons, and the Royal Court.

Gurira co-wrote and co-starred in In the Continuum, first at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and later Off-Broadway, which won her an Obie Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and a Helen Hayes Award for Best Lead Actress.

In 2009, Gurira made her Broadway acting debut in August Wilson's play Joe Turner's Come and Gone playing Martha Pentecost.

Gurira's 2012 play The Convert premiered as a co-production between the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the McCarter Theatre in New Jersey. Later that year, Gurira received the Whiting Award for an emerging playwright and a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Writing in 2013. The play is a historical drama set in 1890s Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) about a woman who turns to the Catholic Church to escape an arranged marriage. It later premiered Off-Broadway in New York at Playwrights Horizons. The play is about family, cultural identity, and the experience of life as a first-generation American. Gurira has said that it was inspired in part by her family and friends.

In May 2023, Gurira played Richard III in a Shakespeare in the Park production for which she received a nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Play for the 2022 Audelco Awards.

In July 2026, it was announced that Gurira will be part of the producing team for the play Shifters, premiering Off-Broadway.

Eclipsed In 2015, Lupita Nyong'o starred in Gurira's play, Eclipsed (2009), Off-Broadway at The Public Theater. It was announced that the play would move to Broadway in 2016 at the John Golden Theatre. It was the first play to premiere on Broadway with an all female, black cast and creative team. The play is set in war-torn Liberia and focuses on three women who are living as sex slaves to a rebel commander, as well as one of his former wives, and a relief worker, and follows and how they deal with this difficult situation. It starred Lupita Nyong'o, Akosua Busia, Saycon Sengbloh, Zainab Jah, and Pascale Armand and was directed by Liesl Tommy. The inspiration for Gurira's play was a photo of Colonel Black Diamond, a female freedom fighter from Liberia, in an article in The New York Times. "Just to see these women standing there, you know, in their jeans and ... fashionable tops and their hair is all done, and they're all carrying AK-47s, was just an image I couldn't get out of my head." The image prompted curiosity about Liberia's fourteen-year civil wars, as well as a research trip to Liberia in 2007. Gurira interviewed more than 30 women who had been raped, among whose daughters that had been taken by rebel fighters and turned into sex slaves. She also spoke to female peace activists who were instrumental in ending the violence. The names of the women in Eclipsed come from the people Gurira met during her travels, whereas the fifth character is unnamed.

She received the 2016 Sam Norkin Award, for Eclipsed and Familiar, presented by the Drama Desk Awards, which said, in part: "Danai Gurira demonstrates great insight, range and depth, bringing a fresh new voice to American theater." Eclipsed received six nominations for the Tony Awards, including the Tony Award for Best Play, and won the Tony Award for Best Costume Design in a Play. Gurira also received a Helen Hayes Award, and an NAACP Theatre Award, and was nominated for a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award.

Her plays Eclipsed and Familiar received a score of 88 on Show Score which indicate "Excellent" on the platform, For Eclipsed from 570 reviews and Familiar with 119 reviews.

Film and television Gurira starred in the drama film The Visitor in 2007, for which she won Method Fest Independent Film Festival Award for Best Supporting Actress. She appeared in the 2008 film Ghost Town, the 2010 films 3 Backyards and My Soul to Take, and Restless City in 2011, as well as the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Life on Mars, and Law & Order. From 2010 to 2011, she appeared in the HBO drama series Treme.

In 2013, Gurira played a lead role in director Andrew Dosunmu's independent drama film Mother of George, which premiered at 2013 Sundance Film Festival. In June 2013, Gurira won the Jean-Claude Gahd Dam award at the 2013 Guys Choice Awards. The film was featured in Indiewire's 100 Best Movies of the Decade list and she was called a "stand out" in the film.

Gurira played rapper Tupac Shakur's mother, Afeni Shakur, in All Eyez on Me, a 2017 biopic about the rap star. Her performance gathered praise with IndieWire saying "Danai Gurira- as Tupac's beloved mother Afeni comes out swinging during the film's opening sequence and never lets up, believably burning right through the screen, conjuring the kind of passion the rest of the film lacks. If anyone makes off with a movie star turn in "All Eyez on Me," it's Walking Dead" star Gurira." The Hollywood Reporter says "Gurira gives great fiery intensity" and Variety in their review said "Afeni Shakur is played by Danai Gurira(who would have been perfect as Nina Simone), Gurira makes her a ruthlessly intelligent analyst of the white power structure who is nevertheless consumed by a rage that has no outlet." For this movie she received a NAACP Image awards nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture.

She owns a production company called Gurazoo Productions.

Before the 2020 pandemic, a limited series adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel Americanah was being produced for HBO MAX with Danai writing the pilot and serving as showrunner and Lupita Nyong'o as the lead actress. However, production delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced Nyong'o to drop out of the series over scheduling conflicts, which ultimately led to HBO Max's decision to drop the project.

In 2025, it was announced that Gurira had been cast in three upcoming films. Matchbox, a Mattel Films live-action movie based on the toy brand of the same name, scheduled for release in 2026. Here Comes the Flood, opposite Denzel Washington and Robert Pattinson, directed by Fernando Meirelles and scheduled to be released on Netflix in 2026. And a new remake of The Thomas Crown Affair, directed by Michael B. Jordan and slated for release in 2027.

The Walking Dead Gurira at the 2015 The Walking Dead Panel at San Diego Comic-Con. In March 2012, AMC announced on a live broadcast that Gurira would join the cast of their horror-drama series The Walking Dead, the highest rated series in cable television history, in its third season. Gurira plays the iconic character Michonne, a relentless and strong katana-wielding woman with a mysterious past and steely resolve, who becomes part of the close-knit group in a zombie apocalypse world and gradually reveals deeply compassionate and intelligent traits. Gurira had to learn how to ride horses for the series, which she enjoyed because it was a physical challenge. Rolling Stone ranked Michonne first in their list of the 30 Best The Walking Dead Characters, describing Gurira's performance as extraordinary. In March 2025, Ranker ranked Michonne 9th in the top 10 list of Greatest Female TV characters of all time.

In February 2019, reports emerged that Gurira would be exiting the show once she had filmed her last episodes during the tenth season. Gurira's final episode, "What We Become" aired in March 2020. By the time of her departure, she was second-billed in the opening credits and had appeared in 96 episodes of the show.

In July 2022, it was announced by Scott M. Gimple, Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira at San Diego Comic-Con a spin-off mini-series centered around the couple Michonne and Rick Grimes, with Lincoln and Gurira reprising their roles from the original television series. The limited series, titled The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, premiered in February 2024 and consisted of six episodes. She co-created it, produced it and wrote the fourth episode, titled "What We". That episode received positive reviews from critics and got her a nomination for the 2024 Black Reel Television award for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series. The episode was also submitted for the 2024 Emmys and was listed on Varietys Emmy Prediction Top 15 list at number 10 in the writing category. The series was well received by both critics and audiences, "Danai Gurira and Andrew Lincoln's phenomenal performances feel like The Walking Dead at its best."

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Danai was cast to star in Marvel's film Black Panther, which was released in February 2018. She played the loyal and highly skilled General Okoye, the head of the Dora Milaje; an elite all-female special forces unit protectors of Wakanda and its king, the Black Panther. She received critical acclaim for her performance, a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, a People's Choice Awards for The Action Movie Star of 2018, a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress and an NAACP Image award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. She also got a nomination for the Indiana Film Journalists Association for Best Supporting Actress. She got a nomination for Favorite Butt Kicker at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards and a nomination for Choice Movie Actress: Sci-Fi at the Teen Choice Awards.

Gurira reprised the role of Okoye in the movies Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and in the sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022). She was set to star in a spinoff series on Disney+, but plans for the show were ultimately scrapped.

Activism and philanthropy Gurira is an advocate for women, the end of poverty, and for HIV/AIDS awareness.

In 2008, Gurira appeared at the Global Green Sustainable Design Awards to read a letter written by a New Orleans native displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

In 2011, Gurira co-founded Almasi Arts, an organization dedicated to continuing arts education in Zimbabwe. Gurira currently serves as the Executive Artistic Director.

In 2015, Gurira signed an open letter begun by the ONE Campaign. The letter was addressed to Angela Merkel and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, urging them to focus on women as they serve as the head of the G7 in Germany and the AU in South Africa respectively.

In 2016, Gurira founded the non-profit organization Love Our Girls, which aims to highlight the issues and challenges that specifically affect women throughout the world. In the same year, Gurira partnered with Johnson & Johnson in the fight against HIV/AIDS. She campaigned for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.

Gurira has been a Global Citizen ambassador since 2016, partnering with the organization on several campaigns and Global Citizen Festivals, including hosting the event in Ghana in 2022.

On December 2, 2018, Gurira was announced as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador by UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka at the Global Citizen Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa. As a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, Gurira dedicates her support to putting a spotlight on gender equality and women's rights, as well as bringing unheard women's voices front and center. Also in 2018, Gurira teamed up with the international conservation organization WildAid in the campaign "Poaching Steals From Us All", focused on raising awareness of the threat poaching poses to animals such as the rhinoceros and elephants.

In 2023, Gurira teamed up with Peta with her dog Papi in a campaign against leaving dogs in hot cars.

Gurira campaigned for Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential election.

Personal life Gurira is a Christian

Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 2007 The Visitor Zainab 2008 My Soul to Take Jeanne-Baptiste Ghost Town Assorted ghost 2010 3 Backyards Woman in Blue Dress 2011 Restless City Sisi 2013 Mother of George Adenike Olumide Balogun 2015 Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast Fury (voice) US Version only 2017 All Eyez on Me Afeni Shakur 2018 Black Panther Okoye Avengers: Infinity War 2019 Avengers: Endgame 2022 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever 2026 Helen Post-production 2027 TBA Post-production TBA TBA Post-production

Television Year Title Role Notes 2004 Law & Order: Criminal Intent Marei Rosa Rumbidzai Episode: "Inert Dwarf" 2009 Life on Mars Angela Episode: "The Simple Secret of the Note in Us All" Law & Order Courtney Owens Episode: "Fed" 2010 American Experience Sarah Steward Episode: "Dolley Madison" Lie to Me Michelle Russo Episode: "Exposed" 2010–2011 Treme Jill 6 episodes 2012–2020, 2022 The Walking Dead Michonne Main cast (seasons 3–10), guest (season 11); 96 episodes 2017 Robot Chicken Michonne (voice) Episode: "The Robot Chicken Walking Dead Special: Look Who's Walking" 2018 PBS' Breaking Big Herself Season 1, episode 3 2021 What If...? Okoye (voice) 3 episodes 2023 Great Performances Richard III Season 50, Episode 14: Richard III filmed live for Shakespeare in the Park 2024 The Walking Dead: The Return Herself TV special The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Michonne Grimes Lead role; also executive producer, co-creator and writer 2026 Invincible Universa (voice) Episode: "Making the World a Better Place"

Theatre Year Title Role Notes Venue 2005 In the Continuum Abigail, et al. Playwright (co-written with Nikkole Salter) Primary Stages, Off-Broadway 2009 Joe Turner's Come and Gone Martha Pentecost Broadway acting debut Belasco Theatre, Broadway 2011 Measure for Measure Isabella Shakespeare in the Park Delacorte Theater 2012 The Convert Playwright The Young Vic, London 2015 Familiar Playwright Playwright's Horizons, Off-Broadway 2016 John Golden Theatre, Broadway 2022 Richard III Richard III Shakespeare in the Park Delacorte Theater

Video games Year Title Role Notes 2020 Fortnite Battle RoyaleMichonne Likeness 2023 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Playable character; voice and likeness 2025 Dead by Daylight Playable character; likeness 2026 World War Z Playable character; likeness

Works or publications Gurira, Danai. Running Head: The Neglect of Black Women in Psychology. 2001. Honors paper, Macalester College Gurira, Danai, and Nikkole Salter. In the continuum. New York, NY: Samuel French, 2008. Gurira, Danai. Eclipsed. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 2010. Gurira, Danai. The Convert. Washington, DC : Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 2013. Gurira, Danai. Familiar. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Billy Rose Theatre Division, 2016. Gurira, Danai. Power of women : Lupita Nyong'o. New York: DKC / O&M, 2016.

Awards and nominations