Charmaine Bingwa (born 13 November 1985) is an Australian actress known for her role as Carmen Moyo in ''

The Good Fight ''The Good Fight'' is an American legal drama produced for CBS's streaming service CBS All Access (later Paramount+). It is the platform's first original scripted series. The series, created by Robert King, Michelle King, and Phil Alden Robin ...

''. She stars in

Antoine Fuqua Antoine Fuqua (born May 30, 1965) is an American filmmaker, known for his work in the action and thriller genres. He was originally known as a director of music videos, and made his film debut in 1998 with ''The Replacement Killers''. His critica ...

's recently released

Emancipation Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranch ...

as Dodienne, wife of Peter (

Will Smith Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968), also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor and rapper. He began his acting career starring as a fictionalized version of himself on the NBC sitcom '' The Fresh ...

), in which Variety has tipped her as one of their predictions for the 2023 Oscars in the Best Supporting Actress category. Bingwa is next set to appear as Isisa, a fierce and formidable warrior in King Shaka, also Executive Produced by Antoine Fuqua. She has also starred in ''Black Box'' as Miranda Brooks, part of

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

's ''

Welcome to the Blumhouse ''Welcome to the Blumhouse'' is a film series consisting of theme-related anthological horror stories, developed and produced by Blumhouse Productions for Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American su ...

'' anthology film series. Bingwa won the 2018 Heath Ledger Scholarship award. She also voiced Felicia Cox in both seasons of QCode's successful podcast, The Burned Photo.

Early life and acting career

Bingwa was born in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

, Western Australia. She began her career as a singer, but when completing her

Bachelor of Music Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of pre ...

at university, until she took acting as one of her final electives. She completed the acting course in addition to her music degree and signed with an acting agent soon after graduating. She won critical acclaim in the stage role '' Doubt: A Parable'' starring as Mrs. Muller, for which she received a '' Sydney Theatre Awards'' nomination. In 2018, she won the Australian '' Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance'' Scholarship to study at the

Atlantic Theater Company Atlantic Theater Company is an Off-Broadway non-profit theater, whose mission is to produce great plays "simply and truthfully utilizing an artistic ensemble." The company was founded in 1985 by David Mamet, William H. Macy, and 30 of their act ...

in New York and then won the Heath Ledger Scholarship, becoming the first woman of colour and openly gay recipient. Bingwa also starred, wrote, produced and co-directed the series ''Little Sista'', which won the LGBT Toronto Film Festival. Her role (Carmen Moyo) in The Good Fight was acclaimed as a "gust of chilly Chicago wind, quickly letting you know who's boss here"; she "made a splash upon joining Reddick & Associates", the fictional Chicago law firm in which she plays a talented, quick-witted, cool, gay, and morally complex junior lawyer.

Awards

Filmography

* 2018: '' Nekrotronic'' * 2018: ''Hello Au Revoir'' * 2018: ''Little Sista'' (TV series, 7 episodes, also writer and director) * 2020: ''Black Box'' * 2021: ''The Pitch'' * 2021: ''

'' (TV series) * 2022: ''Emancipation'' * 2022: Trees of Peace

References

Rising Stars of 2023

External links

* Living people Australian film actresses Actresses from Perth, Western Australia Australian people of Zimbabwean descent Australian lesbian actresses Lesbian film actresses Lesbian television actresses Australian actors of African descent 21st-century LGBT people 1985 births {{LGBT-bio-stub