Thandie Newton Movies and Career Information

Thandiwe Nashita "Thandie" Newton (born 6 November 1972) is an English actress. She has appeared in a number of British and American films, including The Pursuit of Happyness; Run, Fat Boy, Run; Mission: Impossible II; Crash; RocknRolla; 2012; The Chronicles of Riddick and W. Newton was born in London, and is the daughter of Nyasha, a Zimbabwean health-care worker, and Nick Newton, an English laboratory technician and artist. Her birthplace has been incorrectly reported to be Zambia in some biographies, but she has confirmed in interviews that she was born in London, during a two-week trip by her parents. The name "Thandiwe" means "beloved" in Ndebele, Zulu, Xhosa or Swazi, and "Thandie" is pronounced /ˈtændi/ TAN-dee in English. According to Newton, her mother is a Zimbabwean Shona princess. Raised in London and Penzance, Cornwall, she went on to study social anthropology at Downing College, Cambridge, from 1992 to 1995, where she achieved a 2:1. Newton made her film debut in Flirting (1991). She played the role of Brad Pitt's maid Yvette in Interview With The Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994). She gained international recognition in the Merchant Ivory production of Jefferson