Sophie Okonedo (born 11 August 1968) is a British actress and narrator. The recipient of a Tony Award, she has been nominated for an Academy Award, three BAFTA TV Awards, an Emmy Award, two Laurence Olivier Awards, and a Golden… Sophie Okonedo (born 11 August 1968) is a British actress and narrator. The recipient of a Tony Award, she has been nominated for an Academy Award, three BAFTA TV Awards, an Emmy Award, two Laurence Olivier Awards, and a Golden Globe Award. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2019 New Year Honours, both for services to drama.
Okonedo made her Broadway debut portraying Ruth Younger in the 2014 revival of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun for which she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She returned to Broadway as Elizabeth Proctor in the 2016 revival of Arthur Miller's The Crucible for which she was nominated for her second Tony Award. She returned to the stage portraying Cleopatra from 2018 to 2019 in the National Theatre production of Antony and Cleopatra for which she was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress.
She began her film career in the British coming-of-age drama Young Soul Rebels (1991) before appearing in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), and Stephen Frears's Dirty Pretty Things (2002). Her breakthrough role was as Tatiana Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda (2004) for which she received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination. She continued acting in films such as Æon Flux (2005), Martian Child (2007), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), Skin (2008), Christopher Robin (2018), Wild Rose (2018), and Death on the Nile (2022).
For her television work she earned Golden Globe Award nomination for the miniseries Tsunami: The Aftermath (2006), three BAFTA TV Award nominations for Mrs. Mandela (2010), Criminal Justice (2010) and Criminal: UK (2021). She was also nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for her guest role in Ratched (2020).
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