MaameYaa Boafo

MaameYaa Boafo is a Pakistan-born Ghanaian-American actress and comedian.

Biography Boafo was born in Pakistan. She is of Ashanti (Ghanaian) ethnicity. She was raised in Sudan, Ethiopia, Geneva and Kenya, but is a citizen of Ghana. Boafo did a study abroad semester at Marc Bloch University in Strasbourg, France. In 2014, Boafo began portraying Nana Yaa in Nicole Amarteifio's web TV series An African City. Her character is a journalist who struggles to afford rent in Accra, analogous to Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City. Boafo noticed the role on a Facebook page, and because she was travelling she sent a videotaped audition to Amarteifio, who called a week later.

In 2014, she starred in Bus Nut, an experimental short film in which she read the words from the trial of Rosa Parks. It premiered at the San Francisco Film Festival. From 2017 to 2018, she starred as Paulina in the play School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play, which was inspired by Mean Girls.

Boafo was nominated for the Lucille Lortel Award and the Los Angeles Drama Circle Award for best actor, was nominated for a Drama League Award and won a Drama Desk Award for her performance. In 2019, she played private investigator Briana Logan in the TV series Bluff City Law. Boafo portrayed Zainab in the TV series Ramy in 2020.

Boafo made a video in reaction to the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore titled "As Nina", as she reportedly bears a resemblance to the late singer Nina Simone. Drama League Award Distinguished Performance Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Actress in a Play Lucille Lortel Award Outstanding Lead Actress in a Play 2019 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award Lead Performance