Amandla Stenberg is an American actress and singer, who was included in Times list of Most Influential Teens in both 2015 and 2016. In 2016, she was included in Oprah Winfrey's SuperSoul 100 list of visionaries and influential leaders. Stenberg made her acting debut with the film Colombiana. She then had her breakthrough starring as Rue in the film The Hunger Games, for which her performance was praised. She has since starred as Madeline Whittier in the film Everything, Everything, and Starr Carter in the film The Hate U Give, the latter of which she received critical acclaim for her performance, earning her several awards and nominations. In television, she had a recurring role as Macey Irving in the series Sleepy Hollow, and starred as Halle Foster in the sitcom Mr. Robinson, and as Julie in the Netflix miniseries The Eddy. Stenberg made her singing debut as part of the musical duo Honeywater, where they released their self-titled debut EP Honeywater in 2013. In 2015, she released the music video "Don't Cash Crop My Cornrows" and in 2017, she released her debut single "Let My Baby Stay".
Early life
Amandla Stenberg was born in Los Angeles, California, the child of Karen Brailsford, an African-American spiritual counselor and writer, and Tom Stenberg, who is Danish. Her paternal grandmother had Greenlandic Inuit ancestry. Stenberg has two older half-sisters on her father's side. Her first name means "power" or "strength" in the South African languages of IsiXhosa and Zulu. At age four, Stenberg started doing catalog modeling shoots for Disney. She has appeared in commercials for clients such as Boeing.
Career
In 2011, she appeared in her first feature film, Colombiana, as a younger version of Zoe Saldana's character. Her breakthrough came when she was cast as Rue in the 2012 film The Hunger Games. The film was a critical and financial success, and Stenberg's performance was praised. She received a number of awards and nominations, including a Black Reel Award nomination. In 2013, she was cast in the short film Mercy playing the daughter of Robin Thicke and Paula Patton; Thicke directed the film. Stenberg had a recurring role on season one of Sleepy Hollow from 2013 to 2014. In 2013, Stenberg began performing on the violin and singing harmonies at Los Angeles venues with singer-songwriter Zander Hawley. In 2014, Stenberg voiced Bia in the animated film Rio 2, which was a commercial success. In 2015, Stenberg released her first EP in August 2015 as the folk-rock duo Honeywater. In 2015, she released the music video "Don't Cash Crop My Cornrows". She played series regular Halle Foster on the short-lived series Mr. Robinson, which ran in 2015. Stenberg co-wrote the comic book Niobe: She is Life with Sebastian Jones, which was illustrated by Ashley A. Woods, and published in November 2015. It is the first nationally distributed comic that has a black woman as its protagonist, author, and another as the artist. In 2017, Stenberg and Sebastian Jones released Niobe: She is Death, the second part of the trilogy. In the same year, she starred in the romantic drama Everything, Everything, directed by Stella Meghie, and co-starring Nick Robinson. Her single, "Let My Baby Stay", was featured in the film's soundtrack. She received praise for her performance, and earned a Teen Choice Award nomination. In 2018, she played the lead role of Starr Carter in the contemporary drama The Hate U Give, based on the novel of the same name, which is about the Black Lives Matter movement. The film was received positively, and Stenberg received critical acclaim for her performance, with the magazine Rolling Stone writing "It is impossible to over-praise Stenberg's incandescent performance, a gathering storm that grows in ferocity and feeling with each scene." She earned several awards and nominations for the role, which include winning an Image Award and being nominated for a Teen Choice Award, a Black Reel Award, and more. In late 2018, Stenberg starred in Amma Asante's World War II drama Where Hands Touch. In May 2019, she joined the cast of the Netflix miniseries The Eddy, which was released on May 8, 2020.
Public image
Dazed magazine named Stenberg "one of the most incendiary voices of her generation" when it featured her on its Autumn 2015 cover. She was included in Times list of Most Influential Teens in 2015, and again in 2016. In 2016, she was included in the list of SuperSoul 100 list of visionaries and influential leaders by Oprah Winfrey. Stenberg identifies as an intersectionalfeminist. 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. She has spoken publicly on social media about cultural appropriation. Her music video, "Don't Cash Crop My Cornrows" admonished Kylie Jenner for adopting that traditionally African-American hairstyle. In April 2016, Stenberg gave a speech at WE Day California, a WE Charity event.
Personal life
In 2016, Stenberg announced via Instagram that she would be studying filmmaking at New York University Tisch School of the Arts. Stenberg did not end up attending the school as she found herself booking jobs and instead chose to continue with her acting career. Stenberg identifies as non-binary, and uses both 'she/her/hers' and 'they/their/theirs' pronouns. She has previously said that she was bisexual and pansexual. In June 2018, in an interview with Wonderland magazine, she came out as gay. From early 2018 to late 2018, Stenberg dated singer Mikaela Mullaney Straus, better known by her stage name King Princess. In a July 2017 interview, Stenberg said she had stopped using a smartphone, and that she thought phones and social media can have a negative effect on mental health.
