Teyonah Parris

Teyonah Parris is a multi-faceted actor and producer who has played a wide range of roles in film and television. Parris’s feature debut was with writer-director-producer James L. Brooks in the ensemble comedy, How Do You Know (2010), with Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd, and Jack Nicholson, but which failed with critics and audiences.

Parris co-starred with Jo Mei, Andrew Pang, Lucas Dixon, and Jodi Long in writer-director J.P. Chan’s indie drama, A Picture of You (2013), premiering and winning prizes at the San Diego Asian Film Festival. Teyonah Parris’s first significant role was in writer-director-producer Justin Simien’s acclaimed indie comedy, Dear White People (2014), starring Tyler James Williams, Tessa Thompson, Kyle Gallner, and Dennis Haysbert, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival (where it won the special jury prize for breakthrough talent), and earned a robust $5.4 million global gross, prompting a spinoff TV series.

Parris had a supporting role in director-writer David Wain’s rom-com, They Came Together (2014), with Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Christopher Meloni, Bill Hader, Ellie Kemper, Melanie Lynskey, Ed Helms, and Michael Murphy, which premiered at the Sundance film festival, but bombed at the box office for distributor Lionsgate. Parris co-starred with David Oyelowo in writer-director Maris Curran’s drama, Five Nights in Maine (2015), with Dianne Wiest, Rosie Perez, and Bill Raymond, premiering at the Toronto Film Festival. Parris’s first starring role was in director-writer Leila Djansi’s drama, Where Children Play (2015), with Macy Gray and Brian White.

Teyonah Parris collaborated as co-star with filmmaker Spike Lee in his hybrid genre movie musical adapted from Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, Chi-Raq (2015), with Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Hudson, Angela Bassett, John Cusack, and Samuel L. Jackson, and was the first film produced by Amazon Studios. Parris’s first movie as star and producer was director/co-writer Christine Swanson’s biopic of R&B singer Miki Howard, Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story (2016), with Gary Dourdan, Darius McCrary, Amari Cheatom, and LisaRaye McCoy.

Parris was cast in a major supporting role in Barry Jenkins’s acclaimed and Oscar-nominated adaptation of James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk (2018), with KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Colman Domingo, Dave Franco, Diego Luna, Pedro Pascal, Brian Tyree Henry, and Regina King, grossing nearly $21 million globally. Teyonah Parris joined the cast of the Joe Lynch-directed thriller, Point Blank (2019), starring Frank Grillo, Anthony Mackie, and Marcia Gay Harden, followed by another streaming film, the Angel Manuel Soto-directed Charm City Kings (2020), with Parris playing opposite Jami Di’Allo Winston and Meek Mill, and which premiered at the Sundance film festival and was sold by Sony Pictures Classics (intended for theatrical release, but canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic) to HBO Max.

Parris played support in filmmaker Stella Meghie’s drama, The Photograph (2020), with Issa Rae, Lakeith Stanfield, Lil Rei Howery, Rob Morgan, and Courtney B. Vance, and received strong reviews but tepid ($21 million) box office. Teyonah Parris co-starred opposite Yahya Abdul-Mateen in the Jordan Peele-produced horror sequel and reboot, Candyman (2021), co-written and directed by Nia DaCosta, with Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Colman Domingo, Vanessa Williams, Virginia Madsen, and Tony Todd, earning a strong $77.4 million global gross for Universal Pictures.

After co-starring in co-writer/director Juel Taylor’s sci-if comedy, They Cloned Tyrone (2023), for Netflix, Teyonah Parris continued her Marvel role as Monica Rambeau in The Marvels (2023), starring Brie Larson (as Carol Danvers) and Iman Vellani (as Kamala Khan), with Zawe Ashton, Park Seo-joon, and Samuel L. Jackson, and co-written and directed by Nia DaCosta.