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Producer · Actor

1991-08-22 · Walthamstow, London, England · Female

11 series in the catalog

Naomi Sarah Ackie (born 22 August 1991) is an English actress. She is known for her television roles in The End of the F***ing World (2019), for which she won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress, and Master of None (2021) and her film roles in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022), Blink Twice (2024), Sorry, Baby (2025), and Mickey 17 (2025).

Early life and education

Naomi Sarah Ackie was born on 22 August 1991 in Walthamstow, London, the daughter of second-generation Grenadian immigrants. Her father was a Transport for London employee and her mother worked for the National Health Service. She has an older brother and sister.

She went to Walthamstow School for Girls. Her first role was at the age of 11, playing the angel Gabriel in a school nativity play.

She studied at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and graduated in 2012 from the Acting (Collaborative Devised Theatre) course.

Career

Ackie's breakthrough film role was in Lady Macbeth (2016), for which she won the British Independent Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer in 2017.

She subsequently appeared in Idris Elba's directorial debut Yardie (2018) and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). She also portrayed Bonnie in the second season of Netflix's black comedy series The End of the F***ing World, and a school inspector in Education, an hour-long drama part of Steve McQueen's anthology film series Small Axe.

Ackie portrayed American singer Whitney Houston in the biographical film I Wanna Dance with Somebody. The film opened to mixed reviews but widespread praise for Ackie's performance, with Variety calling her "a veritable artist of lip-syncing." The Hollywood Reporter noted that Ackie herself is "a capable singer" and can be heard briefly in a few early scenes.

Ackie starred in Zoë Kravitz's directorial debut Blink Twice in 2024, and a year later starred opposite Robert Pattinson in Bong Joon Ho's Mickey 17, an adaptation of the science-fiction novel. In the same year, Ackie starred in Eva Victor's directorial debut, Sorry Baby, alongside Victor and Lucas Hedges.