Breakout star Zazie Beetz was rewarded for her success in last year’s smash TV hit ‘Atlanta’ with a role in the upcoming Deadpool sequel as the character Domino.
However, comparatively little is known about this brand new star in the acting firmament, so we’ve collected a bit of information to give you the low-down on Zazie Beetz.
Zazie Beetz (middle) with the ensemble cast of ‘Atlanta’
Born in 1991 in Germany, and raised by her American mother, a social worker, and German father, a cabinet maker, she spent a lot of time travelling between Washington Heights and Berlin and speaking both languages. She was attracted to the stage from a very young age, and performed in community theaters and local groups, later receiving formal training at Muscota New School, the Harlem School of the Arts and LaGuardia Arts Highschool, and Skidmore College.
In her early twenties she cut her teeth doing a number of indie short movies and brief roles on television, from 2013 to 2016, before she landed the role of Van in FX series ‘Atlanta’, alongside Donald Glover.
However, despite television being the primary source of her success thus far, Beetz didn’t initially imagine herself being on television, as she told The Frisky in an interview at the end of 2016 upon the success of the series.
“When I think of TV, I often think of sitcoms and I just don’t think that’s necessarily my type. I just didn’t really watch a lot of that,” she remembered. “But with ‘Atlanta’, it was a very different tone and it felt super cinematic. It’s not about a laugh track. I loved the Disney Channel growing up, but I just didn’t expect to be successful in television. I went in thinking I’m going to do movies. My kind of bigger success so far has been television.”
Zazie Beetz Effect. pic.twitter.com/Kvtyk1aI7O
— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) March 9, 2017
At the start of March, Deadpool himself, Ryan Reynolds, announced via Twitter that Beetz had been cast in the upcoming, as yet untitled sequel that will begin filming in June this year.
She is said to have beaten the likes of Kerry Washington, the star of ‘Scandal’, and Mackenzie Davis to land the role as Domino. Her character, real name Neena Thurman, boasts the power of telekinesis and is the partner of villain Cable, whose appearance was teased in the end credits of the original Deadpool last year.
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