page_title: Amandla Stenberg
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Amandla Stenberg / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: The (literal) Starr of The Hate U Give, Amandla Stenberg, director George Tillman Jr. and author of the best-selling novel, Angie Thomas, reveal Regina Hall’s hilarious shenanigans on set of the drama film, why it's so important to watch right now, the story behind how Amandla Stenberg and KJ Apa were cast and why we might see Amandla in Riverdale soon!
context_page_description: Amandla Stenberg is an American actress and singer. She was included in Time's list of Most Influential Teens in both 2015 and 2016.
  Stenberg made her acting debut with the film Colombiana, and had her breakthrough playing Rue in the film The Hunger Games. She received praise for her starring roles in the teen drama films Everything, Everything and The Hate U Give. In television, she had a recurring role in the series Sleepy Hollow, and starred in the sitcom Mr. Robinson and the Netflix miniseries The Eddy.
context_section_description: In 2011, she appeared in her first feature film, Colombiana, as a younger version of Zoe Saldana's character. Her breakthrough came when she was cast as Rue in the 2012 film The Hunger Games. The film was a critical and financial success, and Stenberg's performance was praised. She received a number of awards and nominations, including a Black Reel Award nomination. 
  In 2013, she was cast in the short film Mercy playing the daughter of Robin Thicke and Paula Patton; Thicke directed the film. Stenberg had a recurring role on season one of Sleepy Hollow from 2013 to 2014. In 2013, Stenberg began performing on the violin and singing harmonies at Los Angeles venues with singer-songwriter Zander Hawley. In 2014, Stenberg voiced Bia in the animated film Rio 2, which was a commercial success.  
  In 2015, Stenberg released her first EP in August 2015 as the folk-rock duo Honeywater. In 2015, she released the video "Don't Cash Crop My Cornrows". She played series regular Halle Foster on the short-lived series Mr. Robinson, which ran in 2015. Stenberg co-wrote the comic book Niobe: She is Life with Sebastian Jones, which was illustrated by Ashley A. Woods, and published in November 2015. It is the first nationally distributed comic that has a black woman as its protagonist, author, and another as the artist. 
  In 2016, Stenberg appeared in the music video for Lemonade by Beyoncé, and in the same year won the BET YoungStars Award. In 2017, Stenberg and Sebastian Jones released Niobe: She is Death, the second part of the trilogy. In the same year, she starred in the romantic drama Everything, Everything, directed by Stella Meghie, and co-starring Nick Robinson. Her single, "Let My Baby Stay", was featured in the film's soundtrack. She received praise for her performance, and earned a Teen Choice Award nomination. 
  In 2018, she played the lead role of Starr Carter in the contemporary drama The Hate U Give, based on the novel of the same name, which is about the Black Lives Matter movement. The film was received positively, and Stenberg received critical acclaim for her performance, with the magazine Rolling Stone writing "It is impossible to over-praise Stenberg's incandescent performance, a gathering storm that grows in ferocity and feeling with each scene." She earned several awards and nominations for the role, which include winning an Image Award and being nominated for a Teen Choice Award, a Black Reel Award, and more. In late 2018, Stenberg starred in Amma Asante's World War II drama Where Hands Touch. 
  In May 2019, she joined the cast of the Netflix miniseries The Eddy, which was released on May 8, 2020.
  On August 2020, she was cast as Alana Beck in Stephen Chbosky's film adaptation of the broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen. She will also collaborate with the show's composers, Pasek and Paul, on a new song being written specifically for her character.
caption: Stenberg in 2018
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