Zainab Jah

Biography

Zainab Jah was raised in Sierra Leone and returned to London at the age of ten. After graduating from London Contemporary Dance, she toured as a modern dancer, eventually trading dance for acting. She appeared in numerous plays, winning rave reviews for shows both on and off-Broadway including the Tony-nominated Eclipsed, and won Best Actress from the Philadelphia Critic’s Circle for Hamlet at the Wilma Theatre. Her work in film & TV includes anti-corruption minister Aminata Sissoko in the second season of Deep State, Aby Bah in Homeland, and Harriet Tubman in Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird. Other work includes appearances on Blindspot, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the EPIX series Deep State, and the Sundance hit Farewell Amor. Most recently, she was featured in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. She can currently be seen in the John Wick spin-off mini-series The Continental.

Known For

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

as Mining Tribe Elder

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

as Homeless Person

The Blacklist

as Aïssa Joachim

Homeland

as Aby Bah

Blindspot

as President Botros

Only Murders in the Building

as Ndidi Idoko

Elementary

as Vicki

The Continental: From the World of John Wick

as Mazie

False Positive

as Grace Singleton

The Good Lord Bird

as Harriet Tubman