Her Current Gig: A new generation's Erin Brockovich! Nicole Beharie plays the brassy yet gracious, justice-fighting, real-life heroine Dee Roberts in American Violet. During the 2000 election, Roberts -- an innocent 24-year-old single mom of four who's dragged from her job and accused of dealing drugs -- battles government corruption and repeated drug sweeps in her small Texas town, where the poor and people of color are brazenly targeted.
You Know This Face.. because Beharie, whose magnetic air is arresting, appeared in The Express with Dennis Quaid and her American Violet co-star Charles Dutton. She plays Sarah Ward, the brainy love interest of driven football player Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy, in 1961.
Now press touring with the unflinching Dee Roberts herself and Violet's keen director Tim Disney (Walt's grandnephew) -- to promote awareness and activism -- the sparky, rising starlet is doin'-it-for-herself as she climbs the industry ladder: "I got a grant from the Annenberg foundation through Julliard [her alma mater] in 2008, so I’m working on my own material for some stage -- and employing some of my own fellow actors and musicians to work on a piece … and I just shot a CBS pilot hospital drama … I'm a social worker."
Being in there with Charles Dutton, Alfre Woodard, Tim Blake Nelson ... and Anthony Mackie; Xzibit - all people that I’ve been watching, gone to school with [Mackie], seen their work and now I’m on set with them.
Biography:
* Name: Nicole Beharie
* Date of Birth: Not available
* Place of Birth: Not available
Mini-bio: Having only recently graduated from the acting program at New York’s famed Juilliard School, Beharie finds herself starring as the central character in "American Violet," which is only her second film...( read more). She also appeared in THE EXPRESS, whose stars include Dennis Quaid and her AMERICAN VIOLET co-star Charles S. Dutton. A biopic drama based on the life of college football hero Ernie Davis, the first African American recipient of the coveted Heisman Trophy, Beharie portrays Davis’s romantic interest Sarah Ward in the film.
