Actress and dramatist Danai Jekesai Gurira was born in Zimbabwe on February 14, 1978. She is best known for her leading roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero movies Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War (both in 2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) as Okoye and Michonne, respectively, on the horror drama series The Walking Dead on AMC from 2012 to 2020 and 2022.
Dominican Convent High School was her high school. She then came back to the country to pursue her education at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology. The Tisch School of the Arts at New York University also awarded Gurira a Master of Fine Arts in acting.
Gurira wrote the Broadway play Eclipsed, for which she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play.
Danai Gurira parents: Meet Roger Gurira, Josephine Gurira
Gurira was born on February 14, 1978, in Grinnell, Iowa, to Roger Gurira, a tenured professor in the department of chemistry at Grinnell College, and Josephine Gurira (both parents later joined the staff of the University of Wisconsin–Platteville).
In 1964, her parents emigrated to America from Southern Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe.
