Naomie Harris

Naomie Harris began as a child actor on British television, in the series Simon and the Witch in 1987, and did not get a real break until her mid-twenties. It came from horror: Selena in 28 Days Later (2002), a survivor introduced as the most ruthless person on screen and then gradually allowed to soften. The performance did two jobs at once, establishing her as a physical actor and as someone who could hold an audience's sympathy without ever asking for it.

Blockbusters took the physical half. She played Tia Dalma in two Pirates of the Caribbean films, then Eve Moneypenny across three Daniel Craig Bond pictures from Skyfall (2012) to No Time to Die (2021), a part rebuilt from desk to field and back. There is a version of this career that stops right there.

Moonlight (2016) is why it did not. As Paula, the mother, she produced something specific, ugly and unpitying, a portrait of addiction with no redemption arc bolted onto it, and it brought nominations for the Academy Award, the BAFTA and the Golden Globe for supporting actress. She was appointed OBE in 2017 for services to drama.

Since then she has run both lanes deliberately: Winnie Madikizela in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, a police officer in Black and Blue, the lead in the television version of The Man Who Fell to Earth, the villain in Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and quieter British work such as The Wasp. She is also a stage actor, and it shows in how little she wastes.