Nicole Beharie

Nicole Beharie
Beharie at the 2014 Comic-Con International
Born	(1985-01-03) January 3, 1985 (age 32) West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.
Education	Juilliard School
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2008–present

Nicole Beharie (born January 3, 1985) is an American actress and singer. She is known for her roles in the drama film American Violet (2008), the drama Shame (2011), and the biographical sports drama 42 (2013). From September 2013 to April 2016, she starred in the Fox fantasy series Sleepy Hollow.

Beharie was born in West Palm Beach, Florida. to a Nigerian mother and a Jamaican father. As a child, her father was in the Foreign Service, so she grew up in the United Kingdom, Jamaica, Nigeria and Panama. She attended Orangeburg Wilkinson High School in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and is a 2003 graduate of the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts & Humanities, a public residential high school in Greenville. Beharie was then accepted into Juilliard School, a performing arts conservatory (Drama division Group 36: 2003–07). She was awarded a Shakespeare scholarship and trained in England.

Beharie made her feature film debut in the 2008 film American Violet, where she played the leading role. Also in the same year she played Sarah Ward in the American sports film The Express opposite actor Rob Brown. In the Lifetime movie, Sins of the Mother (2010), Beharie portrayed Shay Hunter, a struggling university student who goes on a journey to mend her fractured relationship with her mother Nona played by Jill Scott.