Danielle Deadwyler Needs to Be Seen

Danielle Deadwyler is an actor who brings an intensity to all of her work, whether it be as a voice of reason, comedic relief, or something in between. She has a way of striking the right balance between her responsibility to the text at hand and imbuing her characters with her own special humanity. Deadwyler finds the truth in fiction. The small expressions upon her face tell a complete story of Black women across space and time. Through her work, she makes clear the intention behind each project selection and the character work needed. This vast talent has led to a whirlwind of success as a multifaceted actor over the past several years. The wide range of her recent performances is proof in itself: the revenge Western The Harder They Fall (2021), a critically acclaimed turn as mother-turned-activist Mamie Till-Mobley in Till (2022), the indie darling I Saw The TV Glow (2024), and Berniece in the film adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Piano Lesson (2024).

Instead of the transformative thespian who graces stage and screen, Deadwyler appears before me barefaced, warm, and inviting in a T-shirt on a Tuesday morning. She is thoughtful but naturally exuberant, instantly expressive, and engaged even over Zoom. It is clear by the way she moves that she has a firm command of her body. She explains that dance was the origin of her musicality. “Dance was my first medium, a language of the total body,” she explains. “Theater taught me rigor. Theater taught me discipline, presence, the knowing of space and time. All of those are just integral to any artistic form, whether I’m doing performance art or something more fine art-driven with materials. I find it coming back often. I find it always present.”

Earlier in her career, Deadwyler worked in the theater in Atlanta in productions such as Charlotte’s Web, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf, and Clybourne Park while taking supporting roles onscreen. The start of this decade saw a shift in the opportunities she was being offered, a change that came with new hurdles, including Covid-19, as her career grew. “It started ramping up. We were literally about to do The Harder They Fall, and then the pandemic dropped,” she recalls. “It had been a whole summer of sheltering in place. It was such a strange time amidst watching so much horror globally. When it opened up, we went and did the film, and things just kind of rolled steadily. Now I have more of a handle on balancing more opportunities.”

With those opportunities has come the chance to be more selective about the work that she takes on. Deadwyler is drawn to roles with depth and nuance, and projects that frequently platform Black, queer characters. One recent example was her co-starring turn in Jane Schoenbrun’s psychological horror cult hit I Saw the TV Glow, which offered an allegory of the transgender experience. Deadwyler portrayed Brenda, the loving mother of Justice Smith’s Owen, who, alongside his best friend Maddy Wilson (Jack Haven), develops a strong attachment to the fictional television show The Pink Opaque, which drives them to question their reality and identities.

Deadwyler’s two most acclaimed roles to date both showcased her ability to embody a sort of beautiful veracity. In 2022, she starred in Till as Mamie Till-Mobley, the real-life mother of Emmett Till, the victim of a racist lynching in Mississippi in 1955. After her son’s murder, Till-Mobley became an educator, activist, and leading voice of the civil rights movement. Deadwyler was widely recognized for her sensitive and profound portrayal, winning the Gotham Award for Outstanding Lead Performance and earning a SAG Award nomination, and landing on numerous lists of the best performances of the year. More recently, she was seen in 2024’s The Piano Lesson, the third installment in producer Denzel Washington’s series of adaptations of August Wilson’s Century Cycle of plays about a hundred years of Black life in Pittsburgh. As Berniece, one of two siblings tasked with deciding what to do with a family heirloom piano, Deadwyler received nominations for both SAG and Critics’ Choice Awards.

Deadwyler was expected to receive Oscar nominations for both roles and received neither, oversights that were recognized at the time by both Black female journalists and Deadwyler herself as examples of misogynoir. But now, she has clearly processed these events, and the particular dialogue around her Black womanhood, and is ready to look ahead. “I haven’t been thinking about it a whole lot,” she says. “Other people bring it up. I always thought about, What does that mean for me? I knew at the time that this would be something that would perpetually follow me that doesn’t follow the other folks. I am deeply aware of it, and it just enables me to keep going.”

Deadwyler’s latest deliberate choice is in HBO Max’s Rooster, alongside Steve Carrell. Based on the author Greg Russo’s own real-life relationship with his daughter, the series follows the aftermath of a scandal on the New England liberal arts college campus where she teaches. Deadwyler’s Dylan Shepard, a poet, becomes an anchor, guide, and somewhat love interest to Carrell’s Gregg while navigating her own struggles. She is in charge of the campus literary magazine, trying to keep the underfunded English department afloat, and later becomes the dean of faculty. “I wanted to do something with this weight, this intelligence,” Deadwyler says. “I often in the past had liked to be in academia, and [co-creators Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses] were like, ‘You want to play a poetry professor?’ Fuck yes!”

After adjusting to the pace of television vs. film production, Deadwyler says she found joy in the community built over a series of episodes. “Rooster is so ensemble-driven, which is so much fucking fun,” she says. “If you want to be an actor, you want to work with people. People are deeply collaborative, and so I am just deeply happy to come and laugh every day. Every day, that’s recuperative for the spirit and warm. It seems to be reflected in the work people are receiving.”

One of the main plotlines of the season revolves around Dylan’s role at the institution, working among mostly white male colleagues. As a Black female poet working in higher education, Dylan is a nuanced character, taking on increased complexity after she is offered the role of dean after John C. McGinely’s Walter is hospitalized, only to have the rug pulled from under her by trusted colleagues after he returns. About her character’s layered arc, Deadwyler explains, “It was really driven by Bill and Matt. That conversation was about someone who was settled in, and what she was doing and where she was professionally. [She was] very good at it and pushed into greater leadership, and going for what she wants.”

As for her hopes for Dylan in the recently announced second season, the answer is balance. “How can Dylan acquire or attract a more balanced life?” Deadwyler asks. “In academia, you’re around people all the time on an institution’s campus. However, the work that one does is extremely isolating. The characters are facing this kind of loneliness. That has to do with Dylan’s discontent with dating and dealing with people. How can she find herself and community?”

Deadwyler’s other recent television work has also included guest roles on The Bear and Euphoria. Whether as the hairstylist cousin of Ayo Edebiri’s Sydney on the former or as the mother of the owner of the strip club where Zendaya’s Rue is now working on the latter, she has a commanding presence and obvious chemistry with her costars. The breadth of her range is in keeping with a career that has already led to her being named one of Time’s most influential people of 2025. “The Bear was one of the initial moments of going in new directions and being in partnership with new folks,” Deadwyler explains about her latest chapter. “They asked me to come in, and I said, ‘Bet.’ It gave me a moment to allow my body, my system, to breathe differently, which was delightful. That flowed into Rooster, and then that flowed into Euphoria.”

As for the recent announcement that Deadwyler was cast as one of the leads of the highly anticipated X-Files reboot being developed for Hulu by filmmaker Ryan Coogler, she stays hush on the project, playfully rolling her eyes: “I can’t tell you anything. I’m just very excited.”

No matter what Coogler has up his sleeves, the project is sure to fall in line with Deadwyler’s mission to platform nuanced portrayals of Black womanhood in both film and television that are desperately needed. While asking the right questions of intent that become palpable to viewers and critics alike, Deadwyler is a force of nature onscreen and the future of her artistic output, it is clear, shall be no different.

Be the first to see this story and many more in print by preordering your copy of our eleventh issue here. Daniel has selected the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund as the recipient of proceeds from direct sales of CERO 11.⁠