Woman Crush Wednesday: Get to Know 'Made for Love' Actress Noma Dumezweni
By Maddy Casale Twitter @madhoops Mar 31, 2021 at 1:00pm
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Somehow here we are, already at the end of March, readying our umbrellas for April showers, and our brains for all of the wonderful new content to hit our favorite streaming service in the coming weeks. But before we move on to a new month, we get to have one last Woman Crush Wednesday, and we're using this day to celebrate a phenomenal actress who has been tearing it up on both stage and screen. She's an engaging and timeless talent, so make sure to remember her name. Give it up for this week's WCW, the wonderful Noma Dumezweni!
WHO'S THAT GAL: Noma Dumezweni
WHY WE'RE CRUSHING: Dumezweni plays Fiffany in the upcoming HBO Max dark comedy Made for Love, which premieres on the platform this Thursday, April 1st. The HBO Max Original Series is based on the 2017 Alissa Nutting novel of the same name, and tells the tale of a young woman (Cristin Milioti) on the run after 10 years in a suffocating marriage to a tech billionaire, who suddenly realizes that her husband has implanted a revolutionary monitoring device in her brain that allows him to track her every move (yikes!). In addition to its fascinating, off-the-wall, and gripping plot, the show features a gifted cast that includes Dumezweni, Milioti, Ray Romano, and Billy Magnussen.
Made for Love is already getting plenty of press, with recent reviews and mentions from publications like Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Marie Claire, and The Mary Sue, which are sounding off on the talented cast and and unique story. Watching this show is an experience all its own, so make sure you dive in head-first to see Dumezweni and the rest of the cast's great work in Modern Love as soon as it hits HBO Max in April.
WHERE YOU'VE SEEN HER BEFORE: Dumezweni's professional onscreen career began in 1999, when she appeared in an episode of British crime drama series The Knock. From there, in the midst of acting in stage plays like Anthony and Cleopatra, A Raisin in the Sun, and Henry V, Dumezweni began racking up credits on screens big and small, with roles in movies like 2002 social thriller Dirty Pretty Things, 2006 indie drama Mysterious Creatures, 2006 drama After Thomas, and 2008 fantasy-comedy Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic, and appearances in shows like Holby City, Silent Witness, Shameless, New Tricks, and EastEnders. It was in 2008, however, that Dumezweni got one of her first big breaks, earning a two-episode stint as Captain Erisa Magambo on beloved BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who.
Within the last decade, Dumezweni's career has only continued to thrive, with roles in films like 2018 musical fantasy Mary Poppins Returns, 2019 fantasy action-adventure The Kid Who Would Be King, and 2019 drama The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, as well as in series like Casualty, Midsomer Murders, and Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams. Perhaps most notable or well-known of all are her recent roles in the shows Black Earth Rising, Normal People, and The Undoing, and well as for the two years she played Hermione Granger in the international hit stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (which takes place nearly two decades after the events of the original Harry Potter series). With a filmography as diverse, extensive, and ever-growing as hers, there's no doubt that Dumezweni will only continue to produce consistently incredible work for many years to come.
WHERE YOU'LL SEE HER AGAIN: If you want to see more from Dumezweni, luckily, you won't have to wait too much longer. The Oliver Award-winning actress will be in the highly-anticipated live-action musical fantasy remake of 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid, which similarly follows 16 year-old mermaid Ariel as she seeks to explore the human world after growing dissatisfied with her own life under the sea. The film, which is currently in the works, features an incredible cast that includes Dumezweni, Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Melissa McCarthy, Daveed Diggs, and Jacob Tremblay.
For even more form Dumezweni in the meantime, you can follow her on Instagram and Facebook. Don't miss out on the latest from this week's fabulous WCW!
Watch Made for Love on HBO Max