Trinity graduate Ruth Negga has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the independent historical drama Loving.
The Irish-Ethiopian actress, who received her BA in Acting Studies from what is now the School of Creative Arts – formerly the School of Drama, Film and Music – in 2002, has received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Mildred Loving in the film. Starring alongside Joel Egerton, the film follows an interracial couple who took a case to the US Supreme Court challenging a state law that prohibited interracial marriage.
She has also been nominated for a Golden Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, Critics Choice Movie Award for Best Actress and a BAFTA Rising Star Award for her role in the film.
Negga’s breakout role was in Breakfast on Pluto, the film adaption of Pat McCabe’s acclaimed book of the same name. Neil Jordan, who directed the film, is quoted as saying he was so impressed with Negga’s ability to act that he had her part specifically written into the script for her.
She also appeared on the popular E4 TV show Misfits and has seen increasing interest from big-budget productions with appearances on shows such as Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Announced on Tuesday afternoon, the nominations for the 89th annual Academy Awards see Damien Chazelle’s La La Land in the lead, with the film up for 14 awards. Meryl Streep received her 20th Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Florence Foster Jenkins, a New York heiress who became a tone-deaf opera singer.
At January’s Golden Globes ceremony, Streep named Negga in a speech adressed to, but not naming, then US President-elect, Donald Trump. Celebrating the diversity of Hollywood, Streep stated: “And the beautiful Ruth Negga was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, raised in Lon – no, in Ireland, I do believe, and she’s here nominated for playing a small-town girl from Virginia.”
