Amandla Stenberg Biography

Amandla Stenberg (born October 23, 1998) is an American actress and singer. She portrayed Rue in The Hunger Games and Madeline Whittier in Everything, Everything.

Early life

Stenberg was born in Los Angeles, California, the child of Karen Brailsford, a spiritual counselor and writer, and Tom Stenberg. Her mother is African American, her father is Danish, and her paternal grandmother had Greenlandic Inuit ancestry. She has two older half-sisters on her father's side. Her first name means "power" or "strength" in the South African languages IsiXhosa and Zulu.

Career

At the age of four, Stenberg started doing catalog modeling shoots for Disney. She has appeared in commercials for clients such as Boeing. In 2011, she appeared in her first feature film, Colombiana, as a younger version of Zoe Saldana's character. Her career breakthrough came when she was cast as Rue in the 2012 film The Hunger Games. She voiced Bia in the 2014 animated film Rio 2. Stenberg had a recurring role on season one of Sleepy Hollow. In the summer of 2015, she played series regular Halle Foster on Mr. Robinson.

In 2013, Stenberg began performing on the violin and singing harmonies at Los Angeles venues with singer/songwriter Zander Hawley. They released their first EP in August 2015 as the folk-rock duo Honeywater. The magazine Dazed named Stenberg "one of the most incendiary voices of her generation" when it featured her on its Autumn 2015 cover. She was also included in Time's list of Most Influential Teens in both 2015 and 2016. Stenberg has spoken publicly on social media about cultural appropriation.

Stenberg co-wrote the comic book Niobe: She is Life with Sebastian Jones. The first issue, illustrated by Ashley A. Woods, was published in November 2015. In May 2017 the pair released Niobe: She is Death, the second part of the trilogy.

In 2017, she starred in the romantic drama Everything, Everything, directed by Stella Meghie, and co-starring Nick Robinson. She will also play the lead in Amma Asante's World War II drama Where Hands Touch.

Personal life

Stenberg considers herself an intersectional feminist. She is outspoken about her political views in interviews and on social media, and was named "Feminist of the Year" in 2015 by the Ms. Foundation for Women.

Stenberg identifies as non-binary, and previously came out as bisexual; however, in an interview for Elle's September 2016 issue she said, "Bisexual is a word I am not too attached to [...] it implies a dichotomy that doesn't take into account trans people. So maybe pansexual is more accurate for me."

In 2016, Stenberg announced via Instagram that she would be attending film school at New York University.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	Colombiana	Young Cataleya
2012	The Hunger Games	Rue	Won - Teen Choice Award for Choice Chemistry Nominated - Black Reel Award for Best Breakthrough Performance Nominated - NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
	The World is Watching: Making The Hunger Games	Herself	Documentary
2014	Rio 2	Bia	Voice
2016	As You Are	Sarah
	Lemonade	Herself	Music video Won - BET Awards for YoungStar Award
2017	Everything, Everything	Maddy Whittier
2018	The Darkest Minds	Ruby Daly	Post-production
	Where Hands Touch	Leyna	Post-production
2019	The Hate U Give	Starr Carter	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2012	A Taste of Romance	Taylor	TV film
2013-2014	Sleepy Hollow	Macey Irving	4 episodes
2015	Mr. Robinson	Halle Foster	6 episodes