Naomi Ackie

Naomi Ackie (birthname: Naomi Sarah Ackie) is a fast-rising, emerging British film star, having landed her first starring role as Whitney Houston in Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022) after only five previous features. Ackie burst onto the feature film scene with great impact in writer-director William Ackroyd’s acclaimed Lady Macbeth (2016), starring Florence Pugh and earning Ackie kudos with a Most Promising Newcomer award from the British Independent Film Awards and double nominations (Best Newcomer and Best Supporting Actress) from the National Film Awards in the UK.

Ackie joined Idris Elba for a supporting role in his directorial debut, the British crime drama Yardie (2018), with Aml Ameen and Stephen Graham, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Ackie earned a supporting role in another British crime drama, The Corrupted (2019), with a cast including Sam Claflin, Timothy Spall, Noel Clarke, and Hugh Bonneville. Naomi Ackie’s first studio production was as Jannah in J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), starring Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Domhnall Gleason, and Richard E. Grant, and grossing just $1 billion globally.

Ackie’s first co-starring role was in writer-director Malachi Smyth’s British heist movie-with-music, The Score (2021), co-starring Johnny Flynn and Will Poulter. Director Kasi Lemmons cast Ackie as Whitney Houston in the jukebox biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody, with a supporting cast including Stanley Tucci, Ashton Sanders, Tamara Tunie, and Clarke Peters.

Ackie’s third big American-produced movie (in a co-starring role) is Oscar-winning Korean writer-director Bong Joon-ho’s highly anticipated sci-fi drama, Mickey 17 (2024), produced by Warner Bros. starring Robert Pattinson, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo, followed by Ackie’s next starring role in the MGM-backed thriller, Blink Twice (2024), with Zoë Kravitz in her debut as director/co-writer/co-producer guiding a cast including Channing Tatum, Simon Rex, Christian Slater, Geena Davis, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Kyle MacLachlan, Alia Shawcat, and Saul Williams.

Ackie then co-starred with Samantha Morton and Hector Hewer in the time-travel, non-fiction, sci-fi film, 2073 (2024), director-producer Asif Kapadia’s feature-length expansion of Chris Marker’s short masterwork, La Jetée (1962), and which premiered out of competition at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.

Ackie co-starred with Robert Pattinson, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo in Korean master filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s $150-million sci-fi movie, Mickey 17 (2025), adapted from Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel, Mickey7, and released by Warner Bros.

Naomi Ackie then co-starred with Benedict Cumberbatch, Laura Dern, and Noah Jupe in the U.K./U.S.-produced futurist utopian drama, Morning (date to be announced), directed by Justin Kurzel and written by Sam Steiner.