Thandie Newton received rave reviews for her bold performance in Jonathan Demme's 1998 adaptation of the Toni Morrison novel, Beloved, which co-starred Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. 
Most recently, Newton starred as a jewel thief who joins forces with super-agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) in John Woo's blockbuster, Mission: Impossible 2, one of the highest-grossing films of 2000. 

Born to a Zimbabwean mother and an English father, Newton was raised in Zambia until she was three years old. Due to political unrest in the country, her family then relocated to England. At age 16, while studying modern dance at the London Art Educational School, she won the lead role in John Duigan's critically acclaimed 1990 coming-of-age film, Flirting, playing a Ugandan girl isolated in an Australian Ladies Academy who begins a romance with a teenage boy from a neighboring boarding school. After completing the film, Newton returned to England to continue her education, earning a B.A. with honors in anthropology at Cambridge University, while also acting in feature films by some of Hollywood's most acclaimed director's - including Neil Jordan's Interview With the Vampire, and James Ivory's Jefferson in Paris.

Newton also appeared as a troubled singer opposite Tupac Shakur and Tim Roth in Vondie Curtis-Hall's comedy-drama, Gridlock'd, and won critics' praise as the exiled wife of an African leader in Bernardo Bertolucci's Besieged. She recently wrapped production on SHADE for first time director Damian Nieman, starring opposite Gabriel Byrne and Stuart Townsend.

Credit: filmbug.com