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All About Sleepy’s Hollow’s Nicole Beharie – The New Black Actress On The Block

by Anya Rahming on October 1, 2013

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Nicole Beharie is the Black actress currently starring on Fox’s Sleepy Hollow as Lieutenant Abbie Mills. At the moment, television viewers seem confused as to who this actress is. No, she’s not Meagan Good or Kerry Washington. Frequent visits to our own site, Blallywood, come from visitors asking if Meagan Good or Kerry Washington are on the show Sleepy Hollow. No Folks, there is a new Black actress on the block!

I understand the confusion. I get that bright Hollywood lighting, mandatory straight-wavyish weaves, and golden makeup can make Black women look carbon copies on TV. But Nicole Beharie is a totally different type of actress from Good and Washington. Beharie hasn’t been on television since childhood like Good. She is perhaps more similar to Washington, because both studied acting in New York before getting well into their careers.

Beharie actually studied acting like at the Julliard School – pretty cool right? The 28-Year-Old’s first real acting debut was only 5 years ago in the 2008 film American Violet. In that film she played a single mother wrongly arrested after her housing projects are raided for drugs. Its based on a true story.

Watch a clip of her first film performance:

Since her debut in this film, Beharie has worked steadily in theater, film, and television. On screen, she’s starred primarily in Black films including Woman Though Art Loosed On the 7th Day with Blair Underwood and Sharon Grier. She’s also appeared in non-Black films and TV shows such as Steve McQueen’s Shame alongside her ex-beau Michael Fassbender, an episode of Law And Order last season, and a few episodes of The Good Wife. Pretty solid resume right?

Film credits not yet mentioned include:

42 (2013) – Co-starring Chadwick Boseman
The Mirror Between Us – (2012 Short)
Apartment 4e (2012)
The Last Fall (2011) – C0-starring Lance Gross
My Last Day Without You (2011)
The Express (2008)

These are all Black films with the exception of Apartment 4e. Her success in branching out into mainstream television with this resume is impressive. Let’s be honest, if you are going to study acting at Julliard, you want to have options besides a Tyler Perry sitcom on OWN.

Do you think her career will go even more mainstream? Can you see Beharie headlining big budget films in the future?