Teyonah Parris

Parris was born and raised in Hopkins, South Carolina. She was accepted into the prestigious South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts & Humanities where she finished 11th and 12th grade, before attending and graduating from the Juilliard School.[2] She made her television debut in 2010, with guest starring role on The Good Wife. In 2012, she was cast in a recurring role as Dawn Chambers in the AMC drama series, Mad Men.[3] She played the first major African American character on Mad Men.[4]

In 2014, Parris had her breakthrough role in the independent film Dear White People.[2][5] Later in that year, Parris began starring in the Starz comedy series, Survivor's Remorse.[6][7][8] In 2015, Parris went to star in the satirical drama film Chi-Raq directed by Spike Lee.[9] She received her first NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture nomination for this film.[10] She played the leading role in Where Children Play directed by Leila Djansi, and starred alongside David Oyelowo in Five Nights in Maine.[11][12] Later in 2015, she played R&B/Jazz singer Miki Howard in the biopic The Miki Howard Story.[13]

In 2016, Parris was cast as lead character in the period drama film Buffalo Soldier Girl about a woman who, disguised as a man, enlisted and fought with the African American Post Civil War era as a Buffalo Soldier.[14] In 2017, she had a recurring role on the Fox prime time soap opera Empire playing Detective Pamela Rose.[15] In early 2018, Parris was cast in a leading role on the CBS drama pilot Murder.[16] Also that year, she co-starred in If Beale Street Could Talk, a drama film written and directed by Barry Jenkins.[17] Parris plays the adult version of Monica Rambeau from the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Captain Marvel in the Disney+ series WandaVision.[18]

• Teyonah Parris at IMDb