Nathalie Joanne Emmanuel, born 2 March 1989, is a British actress. She began her acting career appearing in theatre in the late 1990s, acquiring roles in various West End productions such as the musical The Lion King. In 2006, she began her on screen career by starring as Sasha Valentine in the soap opera Hollyoaks, after which she appeared in various British television series until her debut film appearance in Twenty8k, 2012. Born in Southend on Sea, a city in Essex, England. Her mother is Dominican, & her father is of half Saint Lucian & half English descent. She gained wider recognition for her role as Missandei in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones, 2013 to 2019, & continued her career with supporting roles in Maze Runner.
”The Scorch Trials”, 2015, & its sequel Maze Runner. ”The Death Cure”, 2018, the Fast & Furious films Furious 7, 2015, The Fate of the Furious, 2017, F9, 2021, & Fast X, 2023. She has since taken on lead roles in Army of Thieves, 2021, & Megalopolis, 2024. She made her television debut in 2006, starring as Sasha Valentine in the soap opera Hollyoaks. She appeared on the show until 2010, her character’s storylines included prostitution, & heroin addiction. In January 2012, she presented BBC Three’s Websex. ”What’s the Harm?”, investigating the online sexual habits of 16 to 24 year olds in the UK. Later in the same year she made her film debut in the thriller Twenty8k. The following year, she was cast as Missandei, Daenerys Targaryen’s interpreter, in HBO’s fantasy drama series Game of Thrones.
In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, she confirmed that she received the news about winning the role when she was working in a clothes store as a shop assistant. In 2015, she was promoted to a regular cast member on the show. Missandei was the only prominent character that was a woman of colour in the show, & her death scene, which took place whilst she was in chains, was unpopular among fans, being called an example of fridging & evoking an image of slavery. She later told The Guardian. The reaction to Missandei’s death was so big because she was the only one. I think a lot of the people who felt othered or disenfranchised had connected with her, or felt represented by her, especially women of color.
When she died & in the way that she did it was so painful for people because they were like, ‘Wait, no! That’s how they’re going to do the only woman of color?’ Also in 2015, she played computer hacker Ramsey in the action film Furious 7, & Harriet in the science fiction adventure Maze Runner. ”The Scorch Trials”. For the former she won the Screen Nation award for Best Female Performance in a Film. She played Harriet once again in the movie Maze Runner. ”The Death Cure” in 2018. In 2017, she said that she learnt “the art of subtlety” playing Missandei, & that as she was working on soundstages & with greenscreens when playing Ramsey, that role developed the use of her imagination when acting.
She reprised her role of Ramsey in The Fate of the Furious in 2017, she played Ramsey again in F9, which was due to be released in May 2020, but was postponed until June 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She played Maya, a political speechwriter, in the romantic comedy television series Four Weddings & a Funeral for Hulu, & was the voice of Deet in The Dark Crystal: ”Age of Resistance” Netflix series, both released in 2019. In July 2020, she co starred opposite Kevin Hart & John Travolta in the Quibi original action comedy series Die Hart. In May 2022, she joined the cast of Francis Ford Coppola’s film, Megalopolis. In 2022, she starred alongside Thomas Doherty in the supernatural horror film The Invitation. FHM magazine ranked her as the 99th in their 100 Sexiest Women of 2013, & 75th in their Sexiest Women of 2015. In 2015, she also appeared in the April issue of In Style & GQ magazines. She follows a plant based diet for health reasons, & told Glamour magazine in 2017 that “I don’t trust the food industry, I don’t trust what they put in our belly, it makes me feel sick actually.
