Gurira talks about growing up in Zim

Senior Leisure Reporter
UNITED STATES-based Zimbabwean actress Danai Gurira, who most of us have grown to know as Michonne from the sci-fi thriller series, The Walking Dead, recently spoke of Christmas in Zimbabwe on the popular American TV show — The Tonight Show.

“Christmas is actually really big in Zimbabwe,” Danai Gurira said on the Tonight Show.

“They have a lot of British influences. A lot of it was very very similar. They call it Father Christmas. Though I think now they call it Santa, but back then it was Father Christmas,” she said candidly.

The Zimbabwean-American actress and playwright sat down with Jimmy Fallon last Tuesday to chat about her experiences growing up in Zimbabwe.

“You’re from Iowa?” Fallon asked.

“Sort of,” responded the 37-year-old actress.

“It’s where her mother gave birth to her. When she was five, Gurira and her family moved to Zimbabwe, where her parents are from. A lot of people were moving back after independence,” she explained.

“Let’s go back and sort of invest in the new nation and bring our children home to be raised there, so that’s what my parents did,” said Gurira.

2015 has been a monumental year for Gurira. Last Saturday she was honoured as “Person of the Year” at the African Diaspora Awards in New York City.

She starred as Michonne in The Walking Dead, Eclipsed, the Liberian civil war drama Gurira penned in 2009, debuted at New York’s Public Theater with Lupita Nyong’o in the lead. In February, the play will head to Broadway.