Tessa Thompson

Tessa Thompson was born on October 3, 1983, in Los Angeles, California, USA. Her father is of Afro-Panamanian descent, and her mother is of Mexican and British Isles descent. She grew up in Los Angeles before moving to Brooklyn, New York. She attended Santa Monica High School, where she participated in numerous theater productions. After graduating, she enrolled at Santa Monica College, where she earned a degree in cultural anthropology. In 2003, Tessa Thompson appeared in William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" at the Boston Court Theatre in Pasadena, California. Later that year, she was nominated for an NAACP Theater Award for her performance as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. In 2005, she began her film career with a role in the CBS series Cold Case. In 2010, she appeared in For Colored Girls, a film bringing together prominent African American women actors. During the 2012–13 season, she portrayed significant characters in the series 666 Park Avenue and Copper. In 2016, she played the character Charlotte Hale in Westworld, an HBO television series. She starred alongside Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright, and others in the series.

In Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Thompson portrayed the character of Valkyrie and reprised the role in subsequent films within the Marvel universe. In "Thor: Ragnarok", she acted alongside Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston, Karl Urban, Idris Elba, Anthony Hopkins, Ray Stevenson, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, Ken Watanabe, and Benedict Cumberbatch. She was nominated for a BAFTA Award in the category of Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Thor: Ragnarok (2017). In 2019, she starred as Valkyrie in Men in Black: International, which also featured Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones from previous installments, alongside Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, with Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, and Rebecca Ferguson also appearing in the film.