Newton's star on rise after Bafta win
Thandie Newton’s star continues to rise as she received recognition at the Baftas last night for her role in Crash.
The 33-year-old actress’s career has seen her work with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey and Tim Roth.
Born in Zambia to a Zimbabwean mother and British father, Newton moved to Britain at the age of four.
After she developed a fascination for music, dance and acting she enrolled at the Arts Education School, and went on to obtain a degree in anthropology from Cambridge University, before pursuing a career in acting.
Mother-of-two Newton’s first movie role was opposite Nicole Kidman in the 1990 film Flirting, but her real breakthrough role was in 1998 when she appeared opposite Oprah Winfrey in Beloved.
In the same year, she appeared opposite Tim Roth and Tupac Shakur in Gridlock’d, as a heroin-addicted jazz singer.
Two years later Newton’s career moved up a gear when she starred opposite Cruise in the blockbuster Mission Impossible 2.
In the movie Newton played stunning jewel thief Nyah Hall who proves to be more than a match for Cruise’s special agent Ethan Hunt.
But it wasn’t the first time she’d acted alongside superstar Cruise, – in 1994 she had appeared alongside him and fellow A-Lister Brad Pitt in Interview With The Vampire.
Newton went on to star opposite Mark Wahlberg and Tim Robbins in 2002 comedy The Truth About Charlie, and was in The Chronicles of Riddick opposite Vin Diesel. She also found time to join the cast of US medical drama ER for a recurring guest role, although she turned down a part in the much-hyped Charlie’s Angels movie.
Recently Newton has been mooted as a Bond girl for the upcoming film Casino Royale.
