Nicole Beharie

Nicole Beharie is an American actress. She is best known for her starring roles in films such as the drama American Violet (2008), the psychological drama Shame (2011), the biographical sports drama 42 (2013), and the independent drama Miss Juneteenth (2020). From 2013 to 2016, she starred in the Fox supernatural drama series Sleepy Hollow. Early life Beharie was born in West Palm Beach, Florida. When Beharie was a child, her father was in the United States Foreign Service. So, she grew up in the United Kingdom, Jamaica, Nigeria and Panama. She attended Orangeburg Wilkinson High School in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and is a 2003 graduate of the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts & Humanities, a public residential high school in Greenville. Beharie was then accepted into Juilliard School (Drama division Group 36: 2003–07). She was awarded a Shakespeare scholarship and trained in England. Career Beharie made her feature film debut in the 2008 film American Violet, where she played the leading role. Also in the same year she played Sarah Ward in the American sports film The Express: The Ernie Davis Story opposite actor Rob Brown. In the Lifetime movie, Sins of the Mother (2010), Beharie portrayed Shay Hunter, a struggling university student who goes on a journey to mend her fractured relationship with her mother Nona played by Jill Scott. In 2011, Beharie performed five original songs as a singer-songwriter opposite German actor Ken Duken in the romantic drama My Last Day Without You. In the Russell Leigh Sharman film adaptation of his play Apartment 4E, she played Piper, a troubled young woman who never leaves her apartment. Beharie played Marianne in the Steve McQueen film Shame, portraying a love interest of Michael Fassbender. Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe praised her performance, calling her "a marvel of natural transparency".