Ruth Negga

Negga was born in 1982 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,[4] to an Irish mother, Nora, and an Ethiopian father, Dr Negga. Her parents met while her mother was working as a nurse in Ethiopia.[5] Negga lived in the country until she was four. She is an only child. Her father died in a car accident when she was seven.[6] Brought up in Limerick, Ireland, she has lived in London since 2006.[7][8]

Negga studied at the Samuel Beckett Centre at Trinity College, Dublin,[9] graduating with a BA in Acting Studies.[6]

Negga made her screen debut in the Irish film Capital Letters (2004), playing the lead role of Taiwo. She went on to play the lead role of Mary in Isolation the following year. Prior to this, she had been working mostly in theatre.[9] After seeing Negga act, director Neil Jordan changed the script to Breakfast on Pluto so that she could appear in the movie.[6] She has also starred in Colour Me Kubrick (2005), with John Malkovich, and the short films The Four Horsemen, 3-Minute 4-Play and Stars.

Negga at the 2016 Cannes Festival

On television Negga has appeared in Doctors, Criminal Justice and the Irish series Love Is the Drug. She played the lead role of Doris "Sid" Siddiqi in the BBC Three series Personal Affairs, alongside Laura Aikman, Annabel Scholey and Maimie McCoy.[10] Negga portrayed Rosie in the first two series of Love/Hate.[11]

Negga appeared as Dame Shirley Bassey in the BBC production Shirley in 2011 and won the IFTA Award for Best Actress (Television) for her performance. Her theatre work includes roles in Duck, Titus Andronicus and Lay Me Down Softly.[12] As of 2007, she began working with the Irish theatrical group Pan Pan Theatre. In 2010, she played Ophelia in the National Theatre's production of Hamlet. She also provided voice acting in the video game Dark Souls II, playing Shanalotte, otherwise known as "the Emerald Herald".

In 2013, it was announced that Negga had been booked for a recurring role as Raina on the American TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..[13][14] She appeared in 17 episodes of the programme.[11] She filmed scenes for Steve McQueen's Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave, but her role was ultimately cut from the movie.[15] In March 2015, Negga was cast in the role of Tulip O'Hare in AMC fantasy drama series Preacher, which debuted the following year.[16]

In 2016, Negga starred in Loving, which premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and later screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.[15][17] The film is based on the true story of the Lovings, a married interracial couple in the 1950s and 1960s Virginia, whose relationship led to the Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia. Negga received rave reviews for the role,[11] and garnered multiple award nominations, including for the Academy Award for Best Actress, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, and the BAFTA Rising Star Award.[18][19]

Negga was in a relationship with actor Dominic Cooper beginning in 2010. They first met in 2009 while working together in a stage adaptation of Phèdre with Helen Mirren. The two lived together in London's Primrose Hill.[11][20] The couple dated for six years; however, Negga has pointed out that it took the press years to learn of the break-up, which was first reported in April 2018.[21][22] Negga starred opposite Cooper in AMC's Preacher, in which the pair portrayed lovers, and has said that they are "best friends".[22]

• Duck (as Cat): Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh (2003)
• Phèdre (as Aricia): National Theatre London (2009)
• Hamlet (as Ophelia): National Theatre London (2010/11)
• Playboy of the Western World (as Pegeen Mike): Old Vic Theatre London (2011)
• Hamlet (as Hamlet): Gate Theatre, Dublin (2018)

Negga was nominated as 2003's Most Promising Newcomer at the Olivier Awards.[7] She was chosen as Ireland's Shooting Star for the 2006 Berlin Film Festival.[9] She has received many accolades for her role of Mildred Loving in the 2016 film Loving, including Academy Award, Critic's Choice, and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress.

• List of actors with Academy Award nominations

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ruth Negga.

• Ruth Negga on IMDb
• Pan Pan Theatre official website