Actress Danielle Deadwyler, especially after her performances in 2022, is an actress to watch out for in the future. The Georgia native has had a winding path to get to where she is today, including two master’s degrees in creative writing and American studies, but, like many other actresses, had her start in theater. She appeared in productions of For Colored Girls and Charlotte’s Web, then transitioned to having smaller roles on television shows. From there, her career slowly began to expand further into different genres and characters, many of which she has become known for now.
Her first bigger television show was in Tyler Perry’s The Haves and the Have Nots, but her initial big role was on Paradise Lost, which was a Paramount Network show that premiered in 2020. Soon after that, she landed a spot on Netflix’s The Harder They Fall, and the TV series Station Eleven. However, most recently, Deadwyler has been making headlines for her powerful, moving performance as Mamie Mobley-Till in 2022’s Till. The role landed her a Gotham Independent Film Award for Outstanding Lead Performance, beating many other talented actors in a competitive year. These are Danielle Deadwyler’s best movies and TV shows so far, ranked.
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6 Jane and Emma
Excel Entertainment
A period drama released in 2018, Jane and Emma chronicles the lives of two women who existed in real life. Emma Smith (Emily Goss) is the wife of Joseph Smith, the American founder of Mormonism who was killed by a mob at the age of 30. Jane and Emma detail a fictionalized relationship between Emma and Jane James (Deadwyler), a family servant that was denied the right to have an endowment from the temple. Although the film creates a relationship that did not exist in real life, it utilizes real-life events to drive the plot forward.
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5 The Devil to Pay
Crooked Crow Films
4 Paradise Lost
Paramount Television Studios
Paradise Lost is both a drama and a Southern Gothic, capturing the ambiance of a disappearing way of life in the American South. The show unfortunately only ran for one season, as it was not renewed after its first season premiered in April 2020. A man returns to his hometown in Mississippi for the first time in a long time, but discovers pretty quickly things are not what they seem on the surface. Even though he left a while ago and now has a wife and kids, this town is full of secrets, and when they are uncovered, everyone is affected.
3 Station Eleven
Paramount Television
2 The Harder They Fall
Netflix
Released in 2021, The Harder They Fall was directed by Jeymes Samuel. With an all-star cast, every single member of the main cast is Black, which is rare for an American Western movie. The protagonist of this movie has a dark origin story: when he was 11, his parents were gunned down in front of him, leading to a taste for vengeance against the man who did this to them. Now, 20 years later, it is time to do just that. But in the Wild West, these towns are run by gangs, and killing one man complicates everything.
1 Till
Orion Pictures
Released in 2022, Till recalls the horrific hate crime that led to the death of teenager Emmett Till in the 1950s. However, director and writer Chinonye Chukwu delivered this movie with a twist: it focuses on the experiences of his mother, Mamie (portrayed by Deadwyler), and how she chose a life of activism to prevent what happened to her son from happening to other children. An important chapter and lesson from American history, Till is a painful movie to watch, but a necessary one to confront what happened before, during, and after the murder of Till — an event where one of the perpetrators still walks free today, and laws only just passed in the United States to prevent lynching.
