Tessa Lynne Thompson is an American actress.
While a student at Santa Monica College, she started her acting career in Los Angeles with the Women’s Shakespeare Company.
She performed in The Tempest and Romeo and Juliet plays, the latter of which led to an NAACP Theatre Award nomination.
Her breakthrough came with starring roles in Tyler Perry’s 2010 remake of the 1976 play For Colored Girls and Tina Mabry’s independent drama Mississippi Damned.
Thompson was born in Los Angeles, California, on October 3, 1983. Her father, the musician and songwriter Marc Anthony Thompson, is of Afro-Panamanian descent and the brainchild behind the band Chocolate Genius, Inc. Her mother has a mixture of Mexican and American background.
Thompson received positive reviews for her early film roles in Dear White People (2014), a comedy-drama, and Selma (2016), a historical drama starring Ava DuVernay as civil rights activist Diane Nash (2014).
She became well-known for her parts in franchise movies, such as Bianca Taylor in the sports dramas Creed (2015), Creed II (2018), and Creed III (2023), Valkyrie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero movies Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), and her lead role in the science fiction franchise movie Men in Black: International (2019).
She has also garnered praise from critics for her work in independent films like the dark comedy Sorry to Bother You (2018), the crime drama Little Woods (2018), the science-fiction horror movie Annihilation (2018), the love story Sylvie’s Love (2020), and the historical drama Passing (2021), which earned her a nomination for a British Academy Film Award.
She played Charlotte Hale and Dolores Abernathy on television in the drama noir series Veronica Mars (2005–2006), the drama series Copper (2012–2013), and the science fiction series Westworld (2016–2022).
Additionally, Thompson is a singer-songwriter. She previously performed and co-wrote a number of songs for the Creed and Creed II soundtracks with producer Moses Sumney. She was also a member of the Los Angeles-based indie electro soul band Caught A Ghost.
Many Happy Returns Tessa Lynne Thompson!
