Nathalie Emmanuel

 Nathalie Joanne Emmanuel was born 2 March 1989. Emmanuel started her acting career by performing in theatre in the late 1990s. In the years following, she was invited to appear in various West End productions including The Lion King. She began her acting career in 2006 as Sasha Valentine, a soap opera. Following that she was a part of numerous British television series, including the sequel Maze Runner. Her mother is Dominican. Her father is half Saint Lucian as well as half English. She has a younger sister. Emmanuel recalled how her mother was the first to discover her talent for acting when she was at St Hilda's School. It shut down in 2014. The Westcliff High School For Girls grammar school followed. In an interview for The New York Daily News, she revealed, "When my mom was three, she was always causing drama. So she decided maybe I should channel it properly, so I began learning to act, sing, and dance classes." At 10 years old she was in Young Nala, West End's production of The Lion King. Then, she was cast as Missandei in HBO's fantasy-based drama series Game of Thrones. The actress told Jimmy Kimmel that she heard about her being chosen for the role while she was working as a shop assistant at a clothing shop. In 2015, Emmanuel was promoted to a regular cast member in the series. Missandei was the sole woman of color on the show's cast. The scene in which she died while she was in chains wasn't popular among viewers. Emmanuel later said to The Guardian that the reaction to the death of Missandei was strong because she was the only one. I believe that a lot of people who felt disenfranchised or marginalized had connected with her, or felt they were represented by her, especially women of colour. There was a lot of pain by her death and tragic in the way it happened. This is how they plan to pay tribute to the one woman of their race.