Grinnell, IowaGurira was born in Grinnell, Iowa and was raised there until December 1983, when she moved with her family to Harare, Zimbabwe. She has an older brother who is a chiropractor and two older sisters, while her mother is a university librarian and her father is a chemistry professor. She returned to the United States at age 19 to study at Macalester College. She earned her MFA at New York University.
In 2009, Gurira made her acting debut on Broadway in August Wilson 's play Joe Turner's Come and Gone playing Martha Pentecost.
Gurira's 2012 play The Convert was premiered as a co-production between the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the McCarter Theatre in New Jersey. Later that year, Gurira received the Whiting Award for an emerging playwright.
In January 2015, Familiar, a play written by Gurira and directed by Rebecca Taichman, opened at Yale Repertory Theatre. It later premiered Off-Broadway in New York at Playwrights Horizons. The play is about family, cultural identity, and the experience of life as a first-generation American, and Gurira has said that it was inspired in part by her family and friends.
In 2015, Lupita Nyong'o starred in Gurira's play, Eclipsed (2009), Off-Broadway at The Public Theater. It was announced that the play would move to Broadway in 2016 at the John Golden Theatre. It was the first play to premiere on Broadway with an all female and black cast and creative team. The play is set in war-torn Liberia and focuses on three women who are living as sex slaves to a rebel commander, as well as one of his former wives, and a relief worker, and follows and how they deal with this difficult situation. It starred Lupita Nyong'o , Akosua Busia , Saycon Sengbloh, Zainab Jah, and Pascale Armand and was directed by Liesl Tommy.
She received the 2016 Sam Norkin Award, for Eclipsed and Familiar, presented by the Drama Desk Awards , which said, in part: "Danai Gurira demonstrates great insight, range and depth, bringing a fresh new voice to American theater." Eclipsed was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play, and won the Tony Award for Best Costume Design in a Play.
In 2018, Danai Jekesai Gurira played Okoye, the head of the Dora Milaje , the personal bodyguards of the Black Panther, in Black Panther, an American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, directed by Ryan Coogler, who co-wrote the screenplay with Joe Robert Cole, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
In the movie, five African tribes war over a meteorite containing the metal vibranium, thousands of years ago. One warrior ingests a "heart-shaped herb" affected by the metal and gains superhuman abilities, becoming the first "Black Panther". He unites all but the Jabari Tribe to form the nation of Wakanda . Over centuries, the Wakandans use the vibranium to develop advanced technology and isolate themselves from the world by posing as a Third World country. In 1992, Wakanda's King T'Chaka visits his brother N'Jobu, who is working undercover in Oakland, California . T'Chaka accuses N'Jobu of assisting black-market arms dealer Ulysses Klaue with stealing vibranium from Wakanda. N'Jobu's partner reveals he is Zuri, another undercover Wakandan, and confirms T'Chaka's suspicions.
When Klaue and his accomplice Erik Stevens steal a Wakandan artifact from a London museum, T'Challa's friend and Okoye's lover W'Kabi urges him to bring Klaue back alive. T'Challa, Okoye, and Nakia travel to Busan, South Korea , where Klaue plans to sell the artifact to CIA agent Everett K. Ross. A firefight erupts and Klaue attempts to flee but is caught by T'Challa, who reluctantly releases him to Ross' custody. Klaue tells Ross that Wakanda's international image is a front for a technologically advanced civilization. Erik attacks and extracts Klaue as Ross is gravely injured protecting Nakia. Rather than pursue Klaue, T'Challa takes Ross to Wakanda, where their technology can save him.
T'Challa establishes an outreach center at the building where N'Jobu died, to be run by Nakia and Shuri. In a mid-credits scene, T'Challa appears before the United Nations to reveal Wakanda's true nature to the world. In a post-credits scene, Shuri helps Bucky Barnes with his recuperation.
The movie also stars stars Chadwick Boseman (the American actor who died of cancer yesterday at the age of 43) as T'Challa / Black Panther, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o , Martin Freeman , Daniel Kaluuya ,Letitia Wright, Winston Duke , Angela Bassett ,Forest Whitaker , and Andy Serkis.
