Zainab Jah

Acting · Directing · Writing

Zainab Jah was raised in Sierra Leone and returned to London at the age of ten. After graduating from London Contemporary Dance, she toured as a modern dancer, eventually trading dance for acting. She appeared in numerous plays, winning rave reviews for shows both on and off-Broadway including the Tony-nominated Eclipsed, and won Best Actress from the Philadelphia Critic’s Circle for Hamlet at the Wilma Theatre. Her work in film & TV includes anti-corruption minister Aminata Sissoko in the second season of Deep State, Aby Bah in Homeland, and Harriet Tubman in Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird. Other work includes appearances on Blindspot, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the EPIX series Deep State, and the Sundance hit Farewell Amor. Most recently, she was featured in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. She can currently be seen in the John Wick spin-off mini-series The Continental.

Filmography

• 2026Watching Mr. Pearson — The Advisor
• 2024Drift — Etweda Kamara
• 2023All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt — Older Mack
• 2023Reunion — Director
• The Continental: From the World of John Wick — Mazie
• 2022Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — Mining Tribe Elder
• East New York — Adama Gueye
• 2022Launch at Paradise — Elsa
• 2022Sherman — Sherman
• 2021False Positive — Grace Singleton
• Only Murders in the Building — Ndidi Idoko
• 2021The Black Disquisition — Sedalia / Mom
• 2020Farewell Amor — Esther
• The Good Lord Bird — Harriet Tubman
• 2016Buried Deep — Zainab
• Blindspot — President Botros
• 2015Emily & Tim — Helayne Specter (segment 'Healing')
• The Blacklist — Aïssa Joachim
• Elementary — Vicki
• Homeland — Aby Bah
• 2000Dinner Rush — Adrian
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit — Homeless Person
• Reunion — Writer