Sophie Okonedo is set to receive the Richard Harris Award at the 2024 British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) on Sunday 8 December.
The prize is given for an outstanding contribution by an actor to British film. Previous recipients include Samantha Morton, Riz Ahmed, Kristin Scott Thomas, Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Daniel Day-Lewis, Helena Bonham Carter, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Julie Walters, John Hurt, Emma Thompson, Jim Broadbent and in 2023, Stephen Graham.
Stage and screen star Okonedo was Oscar-nominated for Hotel Rwanda in 2005 and won a Tony for A Raisin In The Sun in 2014. She has twice previously been nominated for a BIFA for roles in Skin and Dirty Pretty Things.
She made her way into acting at the Royal Court’s youth theatre in London, before going on to develop her craft at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA). She made her big-screen debut in Isaac Julien’s enduring 1991 East-end drama Young Soul Rebels.
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Roles include the tragic May Boatwright in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Secret Life of Bees (2008) and Sandra Laing in the aforementioned Skin, the true story of a family’s fight to reclassify their daughter Sandra’s race in apartheid South Africa. She starred with Jessie Buckley in Tom Harper’s Wild Rose (2018), was a mysterious seer in Neil Marshall’s 2019 Hellboy reboot and a 1920s diva in Kenneth Branagh’s 2022 Death on the Nile. In 2022, Sophie joined Bella Ramsey and Andrew Scott in Lena Dunham’s medieval coming of age romp Catherine Called Birdy.
Okonedo has also received three BAFTA TV Award nominations, as well as an Emmy nomination in 2020 for playing a patient with multiple personalities in Ratched, Ryan Murphy’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest prequel series.
Most recently, she can be seen in Amazon Prime’s epic adaptation of The Wheel of Time, in Annie Baker’s debut feature film Janet Planet (2024) and starring in Apple TV+’s hit Slow Horses as MI5 Director Ingrid Tearney.
Damian, Jared and Jamie Harris, in whose father’s memory the award is presented, commented: “Congratulations to Sophie Okonedo this year’s recipient of the Richard Harris Award. Sophie’s performances on both stage and screen have been recognized for both their quality and humanity. Dad’s award for her work in British film joins a long list of accolades that have celebrated the excellent work she has done. We are honored that she agreed to accept this year’s award in his name.”
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