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Danai Gurira. Photo by Gage Skidmore.

Top 10 Facts About Danai Gurira

It is natural to expect someone with world-class talent to be well-known for their abilities. However, some people have so many different talents that they can fly under the radar.

This is arguably the case with Danai Gurira, the incredibly talented actor and playwright. While she is a well-known author, she is best known for her role as Michonne on The Walking Dead. She will also appear in the upcoming Marvel film Black Panther.

Danai frequently lends her voice to raising global awareness for women’s equality. The actress has been a role model for activism both on and off the stage, using her growing platform to promote it.

1. She was born In Iowa but raised in Zimbabwe

Danai Gurira. Photo by Gage Skidmore.

Danai was born to Zimbabweans Josephine and Roger Gurira in Grinnell, Iowa.
When she was five, her family returned to post-independence Zimbabwe, where she grew up in Harare.

Gurira later returned to the United States, where she studied social psychology at Macalester College before earning a master’s degree in fine arts from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

She frequently says that if she had to choose between Grinnell, Iowa, and Harare during a zombie apocalypse, she’d choose Grinnell.

2. Danai is a theatre and acting coach

Danai Gurira. Photo by Gage Skidmore. Wikimedia

Gurira has taught acting and playwriting in Liberia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. As a senior at Macalester College in 2001, she gave one of her first notable performances. Gurira appeared in a Dale Ricardo Shields-directed and choreographed production of Ntozake Shange’s play For Coloured Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enough.

3. She is a broadway playright

Gurira began writing plays in order to better utilize her acting abilities and to tell stories about strong women with whom she identifies. She has received commissions as a playwright from Yale Repertory Theatre, Centre Theatre Group, Playwrights Horizons, and the Royal Court.

4. Gurira is an award-winning thespian

Danai Gurira. Photo by Gage Skidmore.

In the Continuum, which she co-wrote and co-starred in at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and later Off-Broadway, earned her an Obie Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and a Helen Hayes Award for Best Lead Actress. The play observed World AIDS Day 2011 in December 2011. The play, sponsored by the US Embassy in Zimbabwe, was performed at Harare’s Theatre and told the story of two women navigating the world after contracting HIV.

The Convert, Gurira’s 2012 play, premiered as a co-production between the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the McCarter Theatre in New Jersey. Later that year, Gurira was honoured with the Whiting Award for emerging playwright.

Danai’s play, Eclipsed, premiered on Broadway in 2015. The show follows a group of five women as they face challenges during the second Liberian civil war in 2003. The play’s success earned it six Tony nominations in 2016, including one for best play. Eclipsed is also the first Broadway play written, directed, and performed entirely by women.

5. She used to kill it in school before killing zombies and villains!

Gurira has the ability to excel academically in addition to her considerable talents as an actor and writer. She graduated from Macalester College in Minnesota with a degree in Social Psychology.

She also received a Masters in Acting from New York’s Tisch School of the Arts. Not only that, but she received the Macalester College Young Alumni Award in 2011. The fact that she has two degrees in addition to her successful career in entertainment speaks volumes about her work ethic.

6. She is multilingual

Hello greeting in languages and a group of hands. Photo by Dontstop.

With her early years spent in the United States and much of her childhood spent in Zimbabwe, one might expect Gurira to be fluent in more than one language. Fans will be impressed to learn that she can speak four different languages.

French, Shona, Xhosa, and English are among them. It’s difficult to believe that a single person can be an actor, writer, academic, and linguist. However, it appears that Gurira can accomplish almost anything she sets her mind to.

7. Gurira’s breakthrough role was on the Walking Dead series

AMC announced on a live broadcast in March 2012 that Gurira would join the cast of The Walking Dead, the highest rated series in cable television history, in its third season. Gurira portrays Michonne, a tenacious katana-wielding character who joins a tight-knit group in an apocalyptic world. For the series, Gurira had to learn how to ride horses, which she enjoyed because it was a physical challenge. Gurira announced her departure from the show in February 2019, after filming her final episodes for the tenth season. Gurira’s final episode, “What We Become,” aired in March 2020, and she was second billed in the opening credits at the time of her departure.

Danai had never seen The Walking Dead before joining the cast. She was only introduced to the show after being called in for an audition for the role of Michonne. Of course, she became one of the leads and is well-known around the world, but she was not interested in shows like that before she became famous.

8. She was Tupac Shakur’s mother…. In a film

Danai was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for her performance in All Eyez on Me as Tupac Shakur‘s mother.

Other notable roles include her Black Reel Award-winning performance as Nigerian-American Adenike in Andrew Dosunmu’s Mother of George and her Oscar-nominated performance as Senegalese immigrant Zainab in The Visitor.

9. Danai is the protector of Wakanda

She appeared in Marvel’s Black Panther, which debuted in February 2018. Her portrayal of Okoye, the leader of the Dora Milaje, the Black Panther’s personal bodyguards, received critical acclaim. Gurira reprised Okoye in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022).

10. Activism is close to her heart

Danai Gurira. Photo by Gage Skidmore.

She is the founder of LOGpledge.org (Love Our Girls), a global awareness campaign focused on the plights of women and girls.

Serves as an ambassador for Bono’s ONE campaign and was named a Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women in December 2018, supporting the organization’s mission of gender equality and women’s rights.

Co-founded  Almasi Arts, an organization dedicated to professionalizing Zimbabwe’s dramatic arts industry through education, facilitation, and collaboration with professional American dramatic artists and artistic institutions.