Amandla Stenberg

Amandla and Mikaela attend the 2018 MTV Movie And TV Awards

## Image Gallery

**Amandla Stenberg** (born October 23, 1998) is an American actor and singer. They portrayed Rue in *The Hunger Games*; Madeline Whittier in *Everything, Everything*; and Starr Carter in *The Hate U Give* (2018) and is part of the folk-rock duo Honeywater.

They formerly dated King Princess from 2017 to 2019. They also co-wrote her song "Pussy Is God" and "Cheap Queen".

## Early life

Stenberg was born in Los Angeles, California, the child of Karen Brailsford, an African-American spiritual counselor and writer, and Tom Stenberg, who is Danish. Their paternal grandmother had Greenlandic Inuit ancestry.

Stenberg has two older half-sisters on their father's side. Their first name means "power" or "strength" in the South African languages of IsiXhosa and Zulu.

## Career

At the age of four, Stenberg started doing catalog modeling shoots for Disney. They have appeared in commercials for clients such as Boeing. In 2011, they appeared in their first feature film, *Colombiana*, as a younger version of Zoe Saldana's character. Their career breakthrough came when they were cast as Rue in the 2012 film *The Hunger Games*. They voiced Bia in the 2014 animated film *Rio 2*. Stenberg had a recurring role on season one of *Sleepy Hollow*. In the summer of 2015, they played series regular Halle Foster on  *Mr. Robinson*.

In 2013, Stenberg began performing on the violin and singing harmonies at Los Angeles venues with singer/songwriter Zander Hawley. They released their first EP in August 2015 as the folk-rock duo Honeywater. The magazine Dazed named Stenberg "one of the most incendiary voices of their generation" when it featured their on its Autumn 2015 cover they were also included in *Time*'s list of Most Influential Teens in both 2015 and 2016, and named to Oprah Winfrey's SuperSoul 100 list of visionaries and influential leaders in 2016. Stenberg has spoken publicly on social media about cultural appropriation.

Stenberg co-wrote the comic book *Niobe: She is Life with Sebastian Jones*. The book is an offshoot Jone's graphic novel The Untamed. It is set in a fantasy world and follows the journey of a half elf half human princess. According to Jones its the first nationally distributed comic that has a black woman as its protagonist while also having a black woman as the author and another as the artist. Jones wanted Stenberg's help in creating the comic because it revolved around a young female character. The first issue, illustrated by Ashley A. Woods, was published in November 2015. In May 2017 the pair released *Niobe: She is Death*, the second part of the trilogy.

In 2017, they starred in the romantic drama *Everything, Everything*, directed by Stella Meghie, and co-starring Nick Robinson. In 2018, they played the lead in Amma Asante's World War II drama Where Hands Touch, and the contemporary drama *The Hate U Give* (2018).

On October 15, 2018 Amandla announced that they did a song with King Princess. They co-wrote the song "Pussy Is God" by their former significant other King Princess. Morever, they also co-wrote "Cheap Queen".

## Personal life

Stenberg identifies as an intersectional feminist. They are outspoken about their political views in interviews and on social media. They were named "Feminist of the Year" in 2015 by the Ms. Foundation for Women. In 2016, Stenberg announced via Instagram that they would be attending film school at New York University.

Stenberg identifies as non-binary, and uses both 'they' and 'she' pronouns. They have previously said they indentify as bisexual and pansexual.

In June 2018, in an interview with Wonderland magazine, they came out as gay Stenberg is dating singer King Princess. The two attended the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards together in August 2018. In an interview with *Wonderland* magazine in June 2018, King Princess revealed how the pair met:

"*It was a classic Malibu function; a drunken crowd by a heated pool. We talked shit about the systems that made us feel small and the effort we put in rejecting the institutions that reluctantly raised us. What I didn’t tell her was that I distinctly remember walking out of my junior year English class reading: ‘Amanda Sternberg comes out as queer.’ She unknowingly set a precedent in my life, a gold standard of how to be proud and exist in the inter sectionalist of multiple identities that were once thought of as being conflicting.*"
—King Princess

In December 2018 rumors started that the two split due to Amandla deleting all pictures of Mikaela from their instagram and vice versa however, those are unconfirmed. The rumors were fueled when King Princess' mother unfollowed Amandla on Instagram. As of May 2019 the two do not follow each other anymore on social media. On May 17, 2019 *TheTalko* confirmed the break up.

## Credits

* "Pussy Is God" (writer)
* "Cheap Queen" (writer)

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 *Billboard* - Dating Confirmation
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 *TheTalko* - "Actress Amandla Stenberg Will Be The New Face of Fenty Beauty"
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 *Genius* - Pussy Is God Details
4. ↑ *Bustle* "Who Is Amandla Stenberg? The 'Hunger Games' Actress Is Basically The Most Impressive 16-Year-Old Ever"
5. ↑ *NPR* - "Should kids see *The Hunger Games*?
6. ↑ *Hunger Games Sweden* - Ancestry
7. ↑ *Rookie Magazine* - "It’s a New Wave: An Interview With Amandla Stenberg"
8. ↑ *People* - "Up Close with Rue"
9. ↑ *Latime's Blog* - Colobmiana Reference
10. ↑ *BET* - "Young, Gifted and Black"
11. ↑ *Time* - Most influential teens 2015
12. ↑ *Time* - Most influential teens 2016
13. ↑ *Oprah* - SuperSoul 100
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 *CNN* - "'Hunger Games' star uses coming out as bisexual to promote #BlackGirlMagic"
15. ↑ *NBC* - "'Hunger Games' Star Amandla Stenberg: 'Don't Cash Crop My Cornrows'"
16. ↑ *YouTube* - Niobe
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 *YouTube* - "Amandla Stenberg talks about her love for Niobe and representation matters."
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 *The Telegraph* - "Hunger Games actress Amandla Stenberg making 'badass' black feminist comic"
19. ↑ *Vogue* - First look at the comic
20. ↑ *YouTube* - Amandla Stenberg Instagram live stream
21. ↑ *Tumblr* - Organizing a workshop on feminism
22. ↑ *Cosmopolitan* - Feminist of the Year
23. ↑ *Essence* - Attending NYU
24. ↑ *Gay Star News* - Coming out as non-binary
25. ↑ *Tumblr* - Non-binary confirmation
26. ↑ *Bust* - "Sometimes I feel like a boy"
27. ↑ *People* - "Amandla Stenberg: Why 'I Don't Necessarily Always Subscribe to Female Pronouns'"
28. ↑ *People* - Coming out as bisexual
29. ↑ *Elle* - Coming out as pansexual
30. ↑ *PinkNews* - "Hunger Games star Amandla Stenberg comes out as gay"
31. ↑ *E! News* - Straus and Stenberg attend MTV Awards
32. ↑ *MarriedWiki* - "Amandla Stenberg Is Dating Singer-Girlfriend King Princess-How Did Their Affair Start? She Came Out As Gay In Mid 2018"
33. ↑ *Tumblr* - Break Up Rumors