PHOTOS: Variety’s 10 Brits to Watch

BY VARIETY STAFF

Gugu Mbatha-Raw – Actress

“I’m a very cheerful person,” says Mbatha-Raw, “but I do enjoy the tragedy in stories.”

You can see Mbatha-Raw’s serious side in her choice of roles. The half-South African thespian — her first name is short for Gugulethu, which means “our pride” in Xhosa — is shooting Gina Pryce-Bythewood’s “Blackbird,” in which she plays a pop princess whose troubled life reveals the dark underbelly of the music industry. Her starring role in Fox Searchlight’s upcoming “Belle” focuses on a woman who helped overturn slavery laws in late 18th century England.

“What unites Belle and Blackbird is themes of identity,” she says. “They’re totally different worlds, but they do share a common story: they are both about young women trying to find their place in the world.”

After studying acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art — she calls the intensive three-year course “a baptism by fire” — her most formative early roles include Juliet at the Royal Exchange in Manchester opposite Andrew Garfield’s Romeo. “It was a great training ground, technically and emotionally,” she says. Another early influential role was on Channel 4’s “Fallout,” in which she played a poor teenage girl with a violent boyfriend. “It was the first time that I got to play a layered, conflicted woman,” she says. “It’s something I really look forward in all my roles.”

Indeed, her dream parts include Cleopatra and Billie Holiday — the latter of whom she’s drawn to because of the ill-fated singer’s “dark and soulful journey,” she says.

--Anthony Kaufman