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IMDbPro

DeWanda Wise

  • Actress
  • Producer
  • Additional Crew
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,00059
DeWanda Wise
She's Gotta Have It: Season 1
Play trailer1:58
She's Gotta Have It (2017–2019)
17 Videos
83 Photos
In film, television, and theater, DeWanda Wise has established herself as one of the industry's most consistently critically acclaimed artists.

Of her work as Kayla Watts in Jurassic World Dominion, she's been nearly universally considered a standout of the sixth installment with critics noting her magnetism, swagger, wit, and charisma. Entertainment Weekly notes,

"Dominion's most memorable star might be its newest: DeWanda Wise, who joins the series as high- flying pilot Kayla Watts...Playing a daring pilot, (she) is basically starring in a one- woman Raiders of the Lost Ark in her head. Let's get that concept to the sequel writers stat."

In Sony's Fatherhood directed by Paul Weitz, Wise plays Lizzie Swan. Her performance was similarly singled out for her depth of characterization, charm, and grace. While Variety noted that Swan was, "Saucy, gorgeous, so-supportive-she's-saintly," The Wrap observed how

"Lizzie Swan is the kind of ideal romantic partner that might seem eye-rollingly implausible were it not for the efforts of actor DeWanda Wise who makes Swan's healthy outlook and emotional patience seem like hard-earned positive qualities of a healthy, real human being."

As Erin Kennedy in Jennifer Kaytin Robinson's subversive rom com, "Someone Great," Variety declared,

"It's Wise who's this film's MVP, wittily delivering many hilarious, quotable one-liners with effervescence and charm."

Largely considered her breakout role, In the Netflix adaption of "She's Gotta Have It," created by Spike Lee, Wise appears as the iconic Nola Darling. Following its season one release, the series acquired great critical acclaim, and as a result, won an African-American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) award as one of the "Top 10 Television Shows." The Hollywood Reporter calls Wise's work "superb," while Deadline exclaimed, "With a star revealing herself before us, Underground alum Wise hits nothing but high notes." Other critics describe her performance as "fiery," "complex," "brilliant," and "moving."

Other acclaimed television work includes CBS All Access "The Twilight Zone," FOX's drama "Shots Fired," and WGN's hit historical drama "Underground."

Additional film credits include the 2016 Sundance romantic-comedy hit, "How to Tell You're a Douchebag," by Tahir Jetter. A film in which Wise both starred in and executive produced..

In 2016, Wise expanded her talents into screenwriting and wrote the short film entitled, "Where You Go," which premiered at Cannes in the "Short Film Corner."

Stage credits include Atlantic Theater Company's "Fireflies," by Donja R. Love, a performance universally acclaimed. Sara Holdren at Vulture states:

"Wise's smoldering, taut-as-a-bowstring Olivia is almost part animal. It's an electrically charged performance, the kind that you imagine an actor passing out after. Wise has extraordinary bright hazel eyes, cat-like in their intensity: They're the eyes of a domestic creature that should have been wild, a creature that's never at rest, whose small body contains a whole history of life before walls, before cages, before dependence."

Previous stage credits include a host of theater roles, notably originating the role of 'Nina' in acclaimed playwright Dominique Morisseau's "Sunset Baby." Ben Brantley of The New York Times stated,

"...it's the woman who's the toughest of them all. Ms. Wise, a beauty, makes us see and feel just how ugly Nina is...she also insists we understand why."

The Village Voice called her Nina, "commanding and severe," while The New Yorker described her performance as "Brutal and riveting."

Other praised performances include her work as Susan in the west coast premiere of David Mamet's "Race" with Center Theater Group, Mercy in "Flight," at City Theatre, and Abigail, a Zimbabwean wife grappling with an HIV diagnosis, in Danai Gurira's heartbreaking "In the Continuum" at Playmakers, Chapel Hill.

DeWanda Wise graduated from New York University with honors as a double major in Drama and Urban Social and Cultural Analysis with a minor in Community-based Theater and Performance. She is a Tisch Scholar Award recipient, the Atlantic Achievement in Studio Award recipient, and the BFA Representative of her graduating class of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
BornMay 30, 1989
  • More at IMDbPro
    • Contact info
    • Agent info
    • Resume
BornMay 30, 1989
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,00059
  • View contact info at IMDbPro
  • Awards

Photos83

DeWanda Wise in Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
Brittany Snow, Gina Rodriguez, and DeWanda Wise in Someone Great (2019)
DeWanda Wise in She's Gotta Have It (2017)
DeWanda Wise and Sasheer Zamata at an event for The Weekend (2018)
DeWanda Wise and Amirah Vann in Underground (2016)
Q'orianka Kilcher and DeWanda Wise in Firelight (2012)
DeWanda Wise
Laura Dern, Sam Neill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, DeWanda Wise, and Isabella Sermon in Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
Chris Pratt and DeWanda Wise in Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
Laura Dern and DeWanda Wise in Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Sam Neill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, DeWanda Wise, and Isabella Sermon in Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
DeWanda Wise, Anthony Ramos, and Stormi Maya in She's Gotta Have It (2017)

Known for

Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Sam Neill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, DeWanda Wise, and Isabella Sermon in Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
Jurassic World: Dominion
5.6
  • Kayla Watts
  • 2022
The Harder They Fall (2021)
The Harder They Fall
6.6
  • Eleanor Love
  • 2021
Kevin Hart and Rhythm Hurd in Fatherhood (2021)
Fatherhood
6.6
  • Swan
  • 2021
Brittany Snow, Gina Rodriguez, and DeWanda Wise in Someone Great (2019)
Someone Great
6.1
  • Erin Kennedy
  • 2019

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actress

  • Poolman
    • Post-production
  • Three Women
    • In Production
  • Proxy (2022)
    Proxy
  • Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Sam Neill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, DeWanda Wise, and Isabella Sermon in Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
    Jurassic World: Dominion
  • Jurassic World Evolution 2 (2021)
    Jurassic World Evolution 2
    • (voice)
  • Invasion (2021)
    Invasion
  • The Harder They Fall (2021)
    The Harder They Fall
  • Kevin Hart and Rhythm Hurd in Fatherhood (2021)
    Fatherhood
  • She's Gotta Have It (2017)
    She's Gotta Have It
  • The Twilight Zone (2019)
    The Twilight Zone
  • Brittany Snow, Gina Rodriguez, and DeWanda Wise in Someone Great (2019)
    Someone Great
  • Kym Whitley, DeWanda Wise, Tone Bell, Sasheer Zamata, and Y'lan Noel in The Weekend (2018)
    The Weekend
  • Sanaa Lathan and Stephan James in Shots Fired (2017)
    Shots Fired
  • Christopher Meloni, Aldis Hodge, Jurnee Smollett, Aisha Hinds, Jessica De Gouw, Amirah Vann, and Alano Miller in Underground (2016)
    Underground
  • How to Tell You're a Douchebag (2016)
    How to Tell You're a Douchebag
  • Sorta My Thing (2015)
    Sorta My Thing
  • Alfre Woodard and Gbenga Akinnagbe in Knucklehead (2015)
    Knucklehead

Producer

  • White Face (2017)
    White Face
  • How to Tell You're a Douchebag (2016)
    How to Tell You're a Douchebag

Additional Crew

  • Walls
  • Banished: How Whites Drove Blacks Out of Town in America

Videos19

The Stars of 'Someone Great' Are Guilty of These Classic Movie Breakup Moments
Full Episode 2:42
The Stars of 'Someone Great' Are Guilty of These Classic Movie Breakup Moments
Chris Pratt Compares the Feathered Pyroraptor to a Thanksgiving Gone Wrong  
Clip 2:51
Chris Pratt Compares the Feathered Pyroraptor to a Thanksgiving Gone Wrong  
Season 1 Official Teaser
Trailer 0:31
Season 1 Official Teaser
The Prologue Trailer
Trailer 5:30
The Prologue Trailer
Season 2 Trailer
Trailer 2:01
Season 2 Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 2:09
Official Trailer
Teaser
Trailer 0:16
Teaser
Fatherhood
Trailer 2:15
Fatherhood
Fatherhood
Trailer 2:30
Fatherhood
The Weekend
Trailer 2:12
The Weekend
Knucklehead
Trailer 2:06
Knucklehead
She's Gotta Have It: Season 2
Trailer 2:03
She's Gotta Have It: Season 2

Personal details

Edit
    • Official Instagram Page
    • May 30, 1989
    • Jessup, Maryland, USA
    • Alano MillerJune 26, 2009 - present

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    Graduated with honors from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts with a dual degree in Drama and Metropolitan Social and Cultural Analysis.
    • Honey hazel eyes

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