Danielle Deadwyler

Danielle Deadwyler (birthname: Danielle Deadwyler) is a rising star who first gained acclaim for her performance in the revisionist Western, The Harder They Fall (2021). Deadwyler performed in a recurring role in Tyler Perry’s primetime soap opera, The Haves and the Have Nots (2016-2020), as well as several stage performances and several roles in short films, small independent features, and in small supporting roles in such features as Gifted (2017), starring Chris Evans, and The Leisure Seeker (2017), starring Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren. Deadwyler’s first starring role of note was as a Black woman converting to Mormonism in the indie feature, Jane and Emma (2018).

Deadwyler then co-starred and produced the indie film co-directed and written by Lane and Ruckus Skye, The Devil to Pay (2019), with Catherine Dyer. Deadwyler’s breakout role was as Cuffee in writer-director Jeymes Samuel’s The Harder They Fall, co-written by Boaz Yakin and co-starring Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz, Regina King, Delroy Lindo, and Lakeith Stanfield.

The most prominent role to date for Danielle Deadwyler was as Mamie Till in writer-director Chinonye Chukwu’s Civil Rights-era drama, Till (2022), with Jalyn Hall, Frankie Faison, Haley Bennett, and Whoopi Goldberg. Deadwyler joined co-stars Aldis Hodge and Edwin Hodge in director Kourosh Ahari’s sci-fi thriller, Parallel (date to be announced). Deadwyler was cast in the A24-produced (including producer Emma Stone) horror film by director/writer Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow (2024), with Fred Durst, Justice Smith, and Phoebe Bridgers, and which grossed $5.4 million for A24 after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.

Deadwyler played the lead female role of Berniece (and garnering best supporting actress nominations from the Screen Actors Guild and Critics’ Choice) in co-writer/director Malcolm Washington’s film version of August Wilson’s acclaimed drama, The Piano Lesson (2024), including the Washington acting family of Denzel Washington (as actor-producer) and John David Washington (in the lead role of Boy Willie), and ensemble members Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Fisher, Corey Hawkins, Michael Potts, Stephan James and Erykah Badu, premiering at the Telluride Film Festival and released in theatrical and on streaming by Netflix.

Deadwyler then starred in director/writer R.T. Thorne’s Canadian post-apocalyptic thriller, 40 Acres (2024), which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. The Jaume Collet-Serra-directed airport thriller for Netflix, Carry-On (2024), was one of Deadwyler’s first significant roles in which she played support to co-stars Taron Edgerton, Jason Bateman, and Sofia Carson.

Danielle Deadwyler took on the starring role in a horror movie with the Blumhouse Productions-backed The Woman in the Yard (2025), with Okwui Okpokwasili and Russell Hornsby under Jaume Collet-Serra’s direction, and released wide by Universal Pictures.

Deadwyler then co-starred with star-producer Adam Scott in director/co-writer Kevin Hamedani’s black comedy-thriller, The Saviors (date to be announced), with Ron Perlman, Colleen Camp and Greg Kinnear, followed by Deadwyler portraying Otis Redding’s widow, Zelma, in the biopic, Otis & Zelma (date to be announced), co-starring John Boyega (as Otis) under Channing Godfrey Peoples’s direction, and produced by Stephanie Allain and Arron Saxe.