Naomie Harris (September 6, 1976) is an English actress. One of London's most promising imports, she took on Hollywood with an innate acting ability, strength, and beauty that emanates on-screen. Harris started her career when she was a child, appearing in the television series Simon and the Witch in 1987, and achieved leading-lady status as Selena in the critically acclaimed thriller 28 Days Later in 2002, and continued to grow with numerous blockbuster projects. Among other roles, she also portrayed Eve Moneypenny in the James Bond films Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015), and No Time to Die (2021). For Pirates of the Caribbean, Naomie Harris portrayed Tia Dalma/Calypso in Dead Man's Chest and At World's End.

Biography[]

Early life and career[]

Brought up in North London, Naomie Harris has studied acting since she was nine years old. She graduated from Cambridge University (Pembroke College) and went on to train at the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (alumni include Daniel Day-Lewis, Brian Blessed, Miranda Richardson, and Jeremy Irons). One of London's most promising imports, Naomie Harris took on Hollywood with an innate acting ability, strength, and beauty that emanates on-screen. Complementing her training in 2000, Harris spent her first year out of drama school doing theatre before auditioning for Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, The Beach, Shallow Grave) in 2001, went on to play Clara in the Channel 4 adaptation of Zadie Smith's Whitbread-winning novel White Teeth, and then she starred with Matthew Macfayden (Spooks) as Maggie in Peter Kosminsky's (White Oleander) two-part political docudrama The Project for the BBC. Since then Harris has starred opposite Colin Firth and Mena Suvari in Marc Evan's (My Little Eye) film Trauma.^[1][2]

Harris achieved leading-lady status as the co-lead Selena in the critically acclaimed thriller 28 Days Later—a machete-wielding urban survivor role that required a month's personal training to prepare for the stunt work that she performed. She achieved leading-lady status and has continued to grow with numerous blockbuster projects. In 2006, Harris starred in Miami Vice, opposite Jaime Foxx and Colin Farrell. In 2008, Harris worked on the Original Media film August, directed by Austin Chick, starring opposite Josh Hartnett as the female lead, spunky no-nonsense Sarah. Other film credits include the critically acclaimed Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story and Brett Ratner's New Line film After the Sunset with Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, and Woody Harrelson.^[1][2]

Pirates of the Caribbean[]

For the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Naomie Harris starred as Tia Dalma/Calypso in the back-to-back sequels Dead Man's Chest and At World's End. Harris received a 2007 BAFTA Award nomination for the Orange Rising Star Award for her performance in Dead Man's Chest. In addition to portraying the gypsy queen, Harris played a more key role as the capricious sea goddess Calypso, imprisoned in human form in At World's End opposite Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley, directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.^[1][2]

On the mysterious Caribbean soothsayer Tia Dalma, Harris explains, "Tia Dalma's a gypsy queen, a free spirit, someone who has magic powers and the ability to see through people and understand their deepest desires. She's a very powerful woman, which I really like. She has associations with the elements of nature, and she's fiery and temperamental."^[1] The makeup process which Naomie Harris needed to perform in order to create the costume of Tia Dalma deserved just twenty minutes. The makeup, according to Harris herself, was really light as it was sort of black and smudged lips and black tribal markings, in addition to other elements were like red eyes, a gold wig and false teeth, with the latter making her teeth to look busted.^[3]

By 2011, Naomie Harris was asked if she would return to the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Although her character didn't appear in the fourth film, On Stranger Tides, Harris stated that she was asked to do some Tia Dalma lines that would be spoken by Penélope Cruz's character, Angelica, and hinted a possible return in the fifth film. "I don't know, because I got a call from someone on the production team while they were filming and they asked me to do some lines -- some Tia Dalma lines -- for Penelope Cruz. They said that in this one she references her. I haven't seen it to know if she does those lines or not, but I recorded them for her. So I don't know. I thought my character is referenced, which could mean she comes back in 5 but I don't know."^[4]

In 2024, while speaking to her about her new film, The Wasp, ComicBook.com asked Naomie Harris about any potential return to the Pirates franchise. Harris stated, "I disintegrated into a million crabs, so I think my character is very much dead. I loved Tia Dalma, like she is one of my favorite characters of all time that I played. So I would definitely like to come back, but I think she’s very much dead."^[5]

Appearances[]

External links[]

• Naomie Harris on Wikipedia
• Naomie Harris at the Internet Movie Database
• Naomie Harris as Tia Dalma - Naomie Harris Biography
• Affil 1 Network - Biography
• 2002 interview with The Guardian Unlimited

Notes and references[]