Danai Gurira Will Have Her New Play Featured By Yale Rep


Danai Gurira is best known for playing the character Michonne in the hit TV series “The Walking Dead.”

However, Danai, 36, was an award winning playwright long before taking on this acting role. In 2006, she won both the Obie and Outer Critics Circle awards for her play “Eclipsed.”

In addition to acting, Danai continued her writing; her latest play, “Familiar,” is about a Midwestern family and its reaction to the daughter’s selection of rituals for her wedding.

The play will have its world premiere in the Yale Repertory Theaters’s 2014 – 2015 season. It will be one of the three new plays commissioned by Yale. The other two are “War” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and ” Elevada” by Sheila Callaghan.

Danai Gurira was actually born in Iowa, but when she was five years old her family moved to Harare in Zimbabwe. She only returned to America at the age of 19 to study; she earned her MFA from New York University.

Her acting career started in 2004 with an appearance in an episode of ” Law and Order: Criminal Intent.”

Danai’s first movie role was in 2007, playing the character of Zainab in “The Visitor,” for which she won an award for best supporting actress.

Over the next six years, Danai appeared in another five films, including ” Ghost Town,” and ” 3 Backyards.” Her last completed movie in 2013 – “Mother of George” – brought further award nominations.

Currently, she is working on “Lives of the Saints,” which is in production.

During these years, Danai still did some TV work, and appeared in a number of episodes of “Treme” in 2010/2011.

The big break came in 2012, when she joined the cast of “The Walking Dead” in its third season.

Outside of the entertainment industry, Danai Gurira co-founded an organization named Almasi, which is involved in furthering arts education in Zimbabwe.

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