Nicole Beharie
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Nicole Beharie is an American actress. She is best known for her starring roles in films such as the drama '' American Violet'' (2008), the psychological drama '' Shame'' (2011), the biographical sports drama '' 42'' (2013), and the independent drama ''
Miss Juneteenth ''Miss Juneteenth'' is a 2020 American drama film written and directed by Channing Godfrey Peoples and starring Nicole Beharie, Kendrick Sampson, and Alexis Chikaeze. The plot follows a single mom and former teen beauty queen who enters her da ...
'' (2020). From 2013 to 2016, she starred in the Fox supernatural drama series '' Sleepy Hollow''.


Early life

Beharie was born in
West Palm Beach, Florida West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lagoon. The populati ...
. When Beharie was little, her father was in the
United States Foreign Service The United States Foreign Service is the primary personnel system used by the diplomatic service of the United States federal government, under the aegis of the United States Department of State. It consists of over 13,000 professionals carry ...
, so she grew up in the United Kingdom, Jamaica, Nigeria and Panama. She attended Orangeburg Wilkinson High School in
Orangeburg, South Carolina Orangeburg, also known as ''The Garden City'', is the principal city in and the county seat of Orangeburg County, South Carolina, United States. The population of the city was 13,964 according to the 2010 United States Census and declined to 1 ...
, and is a 2003 graduate of the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts & Humanities, a public residential high school in Greenville. Beharie was then accepted into
Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...
, one of the most prestigious performing arts conservatories in the United States (Drama division ''Group 36'': 2003–07). She was awarded a Shakespeare scholarship and trained in England.


Career

Beharie made her feature film debut in the
2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
film '' American Violet'', where she played the leading role. Also in the same year she played Sarah Ward in the American
sports film A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme. It is a production in which a sport, sporting event, athlete (and their sport), or follower of sport (and the s ...
'' The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'' opposite actor Rob Brown. In the Lifetime movie, ''Sins of the Mother'' (2010), Beharie portrayed Shay Hunter, a struggling university student who goes on a journey to mend her fractured relationship with her mother Nona played by Jill Scott. In 2011, Beharie performed five original songs as a singer-songwriter opposite German actor Ken Duken in the romantic drama '' My Last Day Without You''. In the Russell Leigh Sharman film adaptation of his play ''Apartment 4E'', she played Piper, a troubled young woman who never leaves her apartment. Beharie played Marianne in the Steve McQueen film '' Shame'', portraying a love interest of Michael Fassbender.
Wesley Morris Wesley Morris (born 1975) is an American film critic and podcast host. He is currently critic-at-large for ''The New York Times'', as well as co-host, with Jenna Wortham, of the ''New York Times'' podcast '' Still Processing.'' Previously, Mor ...
of ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' praised her performance, calling her "a marvel of natural transparency". In 2013, Beharie starred as Rachel Robinson, wife of Jackie Robinson (played by
Chadwick Boseman Chadwick Aaron Boseman (; November 29, 1976August 28, 2020) was an American actor. During his two-decade career, Boseman received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award, ...
), in the historical baseball feature ''42''. The same year, she began portraying Abbie Mills on the Fox fantasy series '' Sleepy Hollow'', which is based on the 1820 short story " The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by
Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
. In Spring 2016, Beharie departed the series, with her character dying in the series' third-season finale, the episode entitled "Ragnarok", which was aired April 8, 2016. She later stated that an autoimmune disease was one of the causes of her exit and also revealed that she struggled to find work and was labelled as problematic after her departure from the show. In 2020, she starred in ''
Miss Juneteenth ''Miss Juneteenth'' is a 2020 American drama film written and directed by Channing Godfrey Peoples and starring Nicole Beharie, Kendrick Sampson, and Alexis Chikaeze. The plot follows a single mom and former teen beauty queen who enters her da ...
'', a film about a former pageant winner preparing her teenage daughter to assume her former crown.


Personal life

In 2015, Beharie posed for the May issue of Allure magazine.The Naked Truth: Celebrities Go Nude for Allure
Allure. Archived on April 15, 2015.


Filmography


Film


Television


Theatre


Soundtrack appearances


Awards and nominations


References


External links

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Nicole Beharie
on Instagram {{DEFAULTSORT:Beharie, Nicole 21st-century American actresses Actresses from Florida American film actresses American stage actresses Juilliard School alumni American people of Jamaican descent Living people People from West Palm Beach, Florida African-American actresses Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School alumni 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women Year of birth missing (living people)