Ruth Negga at this years Golden Globes where she was nominated
Irish-Ethiopian Ruth Negga
was this week announced as one of five nominees for a best actress award at the Oscars
The Academy (@TheAcademy)
January 24, 2017
“I am truly humbled by the news, and I thank the Academy for this recognition, which I share with my co-collaborators Jeff Nichols and Joel Edgerton,” she said in a statement.
The former Love/Hate star, 35, is nominated for her role in Loving, which tells the true story of an illegal inter-racial marriage in 1950s Virginia.
The couple battled before the Supreme Court in 1967 for their right to live together as husband and wife.
“It has been such an honour to have been given the opportunity to tell the incredible story of Richard and Mildred Loving, who serve as an inspiration that ordinary people can do extraordinary things.
“The Lovings fought quietly yet tirelessly, and changed the course of American legal history.
“To be among such extraordinary women - my fellow nominees, my peers with films this year, and the legendary performers whose work of years past has long inspired me. This means a really great deal to me,” she said.
Ruth's Best Red Carpet Moments
In Valention
valentino Gown
Ruth Negga was born in 1981 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to an Irish nurse and an Ethiopian doctor who had met while working in a hospital.
When violence broke out in the streets of Addis Ababa, four-year-old Ruth and her mother fled to Limerick, Ireland and waited for her father to join them, but he was killed in a car accident in 1988. Despite never really knowing him, she has never been tempted to change her Ethiopian surname -- which means “coming of dawn”.
Being mixed-race in 1980s Ireland made her feel like a fish out of water, and pushed Negga towards becoming an actor. She has said she is drawn to stories of alienation, but it was watching David Bowie descending a flight of steps in the children’s film Labyrinth that actually made her want to try acting.
