Noma Dumezweni

Personal life

Born in Swaziland, of South African parents, Dumezweni lived in Botswana, Kenya and Uganda. She arrived in England as a refugee on 17 May 1977 with her sister and mother. She first lived in Felixstowe, Suffolk, where she was educated, before moving to London.

Theatre

Dumezweni's work in theatre includes: President of an Empty Room and The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other at the National Theatre, London; Breakfast with Mugabe, Antony and Cleopatra and Much Ado About Nothing for the RSC; A Raisin in the Sun for the Young Vic at the Lyric Hammersmith, London (for which she won her Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role); A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Master and Margarita, Nathan the Wise and The Coffee House at Chichester Festival Theatre, Six Characters in Search of an Author in the Chichester Festival production at the Gielgud Theatre and The Bogus Woman at the Traverse and the Bush. In spring of 2009 she appeared in the RSC's The Winter's Tale. In 2013-2014 she appeared in A Human Being Died That Night at the Fugard Theater in Cape Town, the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, which later transferred to the Hampstead Theatre in London.

She starred in Linda at London's Royal Court Theatre in November 2015, stepping into the role vacated by Kim Cattrall with a few days notice before press night. Awarding the production five stars, the Daily Telegraph's Chief Theatre Critic Dominic Cavendish wrote "If they can bottle and mass-produce whatever it is that Noma Dumezweni has got then, please, I want to order a life-time’s supply."

In December 2015 it was announced that Dumezweni had been cast as Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. On the announcement, theatre critic Kate Maltby described her as "an actress who consistently engages and enthrals." The casting of the black Dumezweni as Hermione sparked fervent discussion, to which J.K. Rowling responded that Hermione's skin was never specified as white. Dumezweni is set to reprise her role on Broadway at the Lyric Theatre in 2018.

Radio

In radio, she has appeared in Jambula Tree, Seven Wonders of the Divided World, From Fact to Fiction, From Freedom to the Future, Handprint, Jane's Story, Sagila, Shylock, The Farming of Bones, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, The Seven Ages of Car, The Bogus Woman and Breakfast with Mugabe.