Adepero Oduye is an American-Nigerian actress, director, singer and writer. She is known for movies like Pariah (2011), 12 Years a Slave (2013), The Big Short (2015), and Widows (2018).
She was born to Nigerian parents on January 11, 1978 in Brooklyn, New York. Adepero is one of seven children in a family.
Adepero’s Educational Background
Adepero Oduye is a graduate from Cornell University. She also studied acting with Wynn Handman, Austin Pendleton, and Susan Batson.
Adepero’s Career
Adepero Oduye began acting some years back, a career she has strong passion for, playing intriguing roles in movies.
She was shot to limelight in 2011 when she starred in Dee Rees’ critically acclaimed and award-winning independent movie, Pariah, a movie that was very successful and received several awards and a nomination for Best Female Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards.
Adepero has so far starred in several captivating movies, some of which include:
- Water Fall
- Thee and a Half Thoughts
- Pariah
- Sub Rosa
- Men in Love
- The Dinner
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (post-production)
- 2010 – This Is Poetry – Wife
- 2010 – Louie – Tarese
- 2010 – Tags – Shayla Johns
- 2017 – Geostorm – Eni Adisa
- 2017-2019 – The Feels – Ife 2019 – When They See Us – Nomsa Brath
- 2018 – Viper Club – Keisha 2018 – Widows – Breechelle
- 2018 – Random Acts of Flyness – Aunt Denise
- 2018 – Wanderland – Anais 2018 – Galveston – Loraine
- 2020 – Imitation (Short) (post-production) – Nkem
- 2020 – Monsterland – Amy Cooke
- 2020 – Tazmanian Devil – Elizabeth Ayodele, among numerous others.
Adepero has also starred in a number of tv series like Law and Order, Criminal Intent, The Universals, Steel Magnolias, When They See Us, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and others.
Adepero is such a beautiful, highly creative and talented actress known for playing good roles in movies.
In 2013, Oduye co-starred alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor in Steve McQueen’s historical drama, 12 Years a Slave, winner of the 2014 Academy Award for Best Picture.
She also appeared in Ava DuVernay’s short film The Door part of Miu Miu’s ad campaign known as The Women’s Tales.
In 2014, Adepero made her directorial debut with Breaking In, a short film about a young black man’s first time being stopped and frisked by the NYPD, based on her brother’s early experience. The film has garnered several film festival recognitions and awards.
After several lead roles in regional theater productions, including Eclipsed and The Bluest Eye, Oduye made her Broadway debut opposite Cicely Tyson in Horton Foote’s The Trip To Bountiful.
Oduye has also made name in Hollywood. She co-starred with Steve Carell in Adam McKay’s comedy-drama The Big Short, which won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2015 and in 2017 respectively. She also co-starred in the drama thriller The Dinner, with Richard Gere.
The versatile and talented actress has remained very active and most recently, featured in films, Geostorm and Widows, played activist Nomsa Brath in the Ava DuVernay’s miniseries When They See Us.
Awards and Nominations
Adepero Oduye has in the course of her acting career earned a good number of awards and nominations, notably as:
• Black Reel Award for Best Breakthrough Performance.
• Best Breakthrough Performance at the African-American Film Critics Association Awards.
• Nominee for Black Reel Award for Best Actress.
• Nominee for Best Outstanding Performance by a Cast in Motion Picture at Screen Actors Guild Awards.
• Nominee for Best Ensemle Cast at seattle Film Critics Society Awards
• Nominee for Best Ensemble Cast at Gold Derby Awards
• Best Actress Nigeria in Hollywood at the Nigerian Entertainment Awards.
Adepero Oduye plays Alike, a 17-year-old African American girl in New York struggling to reconcile her identity as a lesbian and an emerging writer with the expectations of her conservative parents and her outspoken best friend.
Her Personal Life
Adepero Oduye marital relationship is not known. She is however believed to be a relationship which she does not flaunt in the public and social media.
Adepero Oduye’s Net Worth
Adepero Oduye is indeed a talent and one of the highly celebrated American-Nigerian actresses with an estimated net worth of over $2 million dollars as at 2024.
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