Cynthia Addai Robinson

Born: 12/01/1985 (38 yo)
Birth place: London (UK)

Citizenship : USA, United Kingdom
Ascendant : Other African
Ethnicity : born from Ghanean mother

Occupation : Actress
Active Years: 2002 to present

Summary

Cynthia Addai-Robinson is an British-born American actress. She is best known for her roles as Naevia in the Starz television series Spartacus and DC Comics villain Amanda Waller in The CW TV series Arrow.

Biography

Addai-Robinson was born in London; her mother is from Ghana and her father was an American citizen. She moved to the U.S. when she was 4 and was raised by her mother in a suburb of Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, MD and Tisch School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater. In addition, she trained at Lee Strasberg Theater Institute and in dance forms ballet, jazz, tap. She received Navy Seal and New Zealand Special Forces training during the filming of Spartacus: War of the Damned.

Career

After participating in several various Off-Broadway plays, she got her first role on television in 2002 in an episode of The Education of Max Bickford. In following years, she made small appearances on television shows like Law & Order: Trial by Jury, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, CSI: Miami, Numb3rs and Justice. In 2009, she got her first recurring role on the ABC drama, FlashForward playing the character of a Debbie, a nurse. The same year she appeared in Tina Mabry's independent film Mississippi Damned as Milena.

In late 2011 she made her big screen debut playing Zoe Saldana's / Amandla Stenberg's mother Alicia Restrepo in Colombiana.

Her biggest role came in April 2011 when she was cast as Naevia in Spartacus: Vengeance. She replaced actress Lesley-Ann Brandt, who originally played the role in the first season and prequel, but decided to leave the show.

In early 2013 she played Aja, a powerful witch who came to help Bonnie on The Vampire Diaries for two episodes. She made a brief a cameo as an on looker in the crowd in the film Star Trek Into Darkness. In September 2013, she was cast as the recurring character Amanda Waller in the hit The CW show, Arrow.

In March 2014, she was cast as Emily D. West in the History channel 2015 miniseries Texas Rising. Addai-Robinson became an Emmy contender for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series.

In January 2015, she was cast in Gavin O'Connor's The Accountant joining Ben Affleck and JK Simmons. Robinson will play a U.S. Treasury Department analyst who has kept a low profile. The film release date, previously January, is now set for October 2016.