Who Plays Nawi In The Woman King?

Sony's "The Woman King" tells the story of the Agojie, a tribe of early 19th Century female warriors from the West African kingdom of Dahomey. The film stars Angela Davis and John Boyega as the rulers of Dahomey, and Jordan Bolger as Malik, a Dutch slave trader who comes to Dahomey with his friend Santo (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) to learn more about his late mother, who was taken from Dahomey as a slave. 

While there, he falls in love with a young Agojie warrior named Nawi, who convinces him to distance himself from his friend. In the film's final scene, Malik frees a group of slaves, who then kill Santo. South African actor Thuso Mbedu is the performer who captivatingly brought Nawi to life, and she has won several awards in her short but notable career. Mbedu's first role was on the South African soap opera "Isibaya," which has won 27 South African Film and Television Academy Golden Horn Awards. Mbedu appeared in three Season 4 episodes as Nosisa. In 2015, she appeared on the South African soap "Scandal!" 15 times as Kitso. "Scandal!' was another highly lauded South African series, earning 15 Golden Horn awards and 35 nominations, including a 2021 nomination for Best TV Soap.

She then went on to star as Winnie on "Is'Thunzi," a drama with a stellar 9.3/10 rating from IMDb viewers. Mbedu picked up her first two individual Golden Horn nominations in 2018 and 2019 as best actress in a TV drama for her work on "Is'Thunzi."

She also appeared on 20 episodes of the teen drama "Shuga" between 2017 and 2019 before bringing her growing resume and collection of accolades to the United States in 2021.

Thuso Mbedu's first Hollywood-based acting role was as Cora Randall on the Amazon Prime miniseries "The Underground Railroad." Cora is abandoned by her mother, and Mbedu found it both easy and painful to make a connection with the character, since her own mother had died when Mbedu was a young girl. When she was 16, an uncle also died suddenly, and she told CNN the repeated losses left her with deep emotional scars. 

She explained it had been her habit to build a wall between the experiences in her own life and the traumas felt by her characters, but for "The Underground Railroad," she felt the need to break down that barrier, and in doing so was able to grow and heal from her personal losses. 

"Being 100% true to the character meant I had to confront the issues that she's going through," Mbedu said. "It so happened that the same blockages that she had, were the same things that I was resisting. By confronting them through Cora, I, as Thuso, had to also confront them. That's where the healing began."