Danai Gurira, the Zimbabwean in The Walking Dead
Danai Gurira is a Zimbabwean Obie Award-winning actress and playwright who is widely known for her role in Walking Dead as Michnne the Zombie Slayer. Born in the United States, but raised in Zimbabwe Danai has won 6 Oviation awards over her career as a playwright and has also made her mark in both small and big screen as an actress.
Personality
A fluent and confident young lady, Danai does not mince words and has always spoken her mind firmly. Her opinions, of which there are many, are resolute. She’s engaging, self-assured and enthusiastic when she talks about subjects close to her heart.
Early Life
Born in Iowa, she spent her childhood and teenage years in Zimbabwe, her parents’ homeland, before returning to the States. She describes her childhood and adolescence as idyllic, and Gurira says she was drawn to performing early on. It was in Zimbabwe where she discovered her passion for acting as part of the Children’s Performing Arts Workshop where they used to just create work, thus starting her playwright
The youngest of four children born to Zimbabwean academics — her father is a chemistry professor, her mother a university librarian. She later moved to the States to attend college at Macalester, a small liberal arts college in Minnesota then moved to pursue her MFA at the New York University’s School of the Arts, which was a program that taught her to be a well-rounded artist.
Career
In 2011 she wrote the play ‘The Convert’ which won her the Stavis Award and Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award. The focus is on Jekesai, a girl who escapes a forced marriage arrangement and is then faced with choosing between her cultural traditions and the Christian faith and Western principles she has come to adopt.
In 2012 she won the Whiting Award and in 2013, LA Drama Critics Circle Witting Award. She also won an Obie, Helen Hayes and NZZCP Best New Playwright Awards for the two enthralling plays she was featured in like, ‘In the Continuum’ and ‘Eclipsed’.
She has made her mark in the acting world as well in productions like ‘The Visitor, ‘Mother of George,’ ‘My Soul to Take’ and ‘Walking Dead’. In 2012, she was a regular on the New Orleans-set HBO series Treme.
Walking Dead
As Michonne, the ferocious warrior in the hit series, ‘The Walking Dead,’ she seems invincible as she battles to survive a zombie apocalypse. Michonne’s steely demeanor functions as a kind of emotional armor, protecting her deeply wounded soul. It’s a role that’s earned her a devoted cult following. The character is beloved by readers of the Robert Kirkman comic book that spawned the hit series
Vision
Danai has said than spending her formative years in Zimbabwe and understanding Zimbabwean people and also living in the states has enriched who she is. She is constantly thinking about and negotiating how to bridge the gap between the African and the American and how to connect them. She tries to bring African stories to the American stage but in ways that are accessible. She wants the connection to be felt.
Giving back to society
Gurira’s strong connection to her African heritage led her last year to co-found Almasi, an organization devoted to the development of the dramatic arts in Zimbabwe. She travels to Zimbabwe at least once a year to for this cause as well to visit friends and family.