Thandie Newton Ethnicity

Just in case you wonder about Thandie Newton's ethnicity, Newton is of British and African descent.  



  


Newton, 41, was born in London, England. Her family lived in Zimbabwe until she was three, when they returned to the UK. Her father Nick is an English laboratory technician and artist and her mother Nyasha is a princess of the Shona tribe in Zimbabwe. 

In Thandie Newton's own words: "In Britain she worked as a district nurse, but she retained that incredible African dignity and poise. Growing up in Penzance, Cornwall, my brother, Jamie, and I were the only black children in the area", noting: "In some ways I'd say I come from Africa, but then I don't speak my mother's language, and in other ways I'm British through and through. I suppose I've never completely fitted in in either place".

At a recent TED conference, Newton was quoted as saying: "From about the age of five I was aware that I didn't fit. I was the black, atheist kid in the all-white Catholic school run by nuns. I was an anomaly…my skin colour wasn't right, my hair wasn't right, my history wasn't right. My self became defined by Otherness."




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