Sophie Okonedo CBE (born 11 August 1968) is a British filmmaker, singer, narrator, theatre and television actress. She began her film career in the British coming-of-age drama Young Soul Rebels (1991) before performing in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) and Stephen Frears’s Dirty Pretty Things (2002).
Okonedo has one girl, from a former relationship with Irish film editor Eoin Martin, and lives in Muswell Hill, London. On her heritage, Okonedo states, “I feel as proud to be Jewish as I feel to be black” and calls her daughter an “Irish, Nigerian Jew”.
On stage, Okonedo also starred as Cressida in the 1999 Royal National Theatre production of Troilus and Cressida. She made her Broadway debut in the 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun and received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play and won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Ruth Younger.
Okonedo was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours, and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours.