An English actress who has appeared in a number of British and American films. Raised in London and Cornwall, she went on to study social anthropology at Downing College, Cambridge, from 1992 to 1995. She made her film debut in Flirting (1991) and played the role of Brad Pitt's maid Yvette in Interview With A Vampire (1994). She gained international recognition in the Merchant Ivory production of Jefferson in Paris as Sally Hemings, which led to her being cast in Jonathan Demme's Beloved (1998), in which she played the title character alongside co-stars Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. She played the female lead Nyah Hall in the film Mission: Impossible II. In 2004, she appeared in The Chronicles of Riddick and Crash.