Zazie Beetz

Actor, Producer, Soundtrack

Birthdate: June 1, 1991 (35 Years Old)

Birthplace: Mitte, Berlin, Germany

Soon after graduating from Skidmore College—after, she says, spending a year “broke and waiting tables,” Zazie Beetz (birthname: Zazie Olivia Beetz) first made her mark in film and TV with her recurring role as Van Keefer on the hit Fox series, Atlanta (2016-present), although she had already acted in Josh Mond’s indie feature, James White (2015), with Christopher Abbott and Cynthia Nixon, and Onur Tukel’s Applesauce (2015), with Max Casella and Dylan Baker.

Beetz was part of the ensemble of Bart Freundlich’s IFC release, Wolves (2016), with Michael Shannon and Carla Gugino, and acclaimed indie filmmaker Matt Porterfield’s drama Sollers Point (2017), with Jim Belushi and Marin Ireland. Beetz’s extremely diverse filmography is her trademark, appearing in such big budget genre vehicles as Dean Devlin’s Geostorm (2017), with Gerard Butler, Abbie Cornish, and Ed Harris, though the $120 million budgeted film lost money for distributor Warner Bros.; Deadpool 2 (2018), Beetz’s first collaboration with director David Leitch, and starring Ryan Reynolds; and Todd Phillips’ Oscar-nominated Joker (2019), with Joaquin Phoenix, which became the highest grossing R-rated film in history with a worldwide return exceeding $1 billion.

In contrast, Zazie Beetz has also acted in several distinctive indie films, including Cathy Yun’s Chinese comedy, Dead Pigs (2018), with Vivian Wu; Babak Anvari’s first English-language feature, Wounds (2019), with Armie Hammer and Dakota Johnson; Steven Soderbergh’s snappy look at the sports business, High Flying Bird (2019), with André Holland; Benedict Andrews’ biopic on Jean Seberg, Seberg (2019), with Kristen Stewart and Jack O'Connell; Noah Hawley’s outer space drama, Lucy in the Sky (2019), with Natalie Portman and Jon Hamm; Edson Oda’s Sundance-premiering Nine Days (2020), with Winston Duke and Benedict Wong.

One of Beetz’s most successful American indie films appeared in 2021, with Jaymes Samuel’s stylized Western, The Harder They Fall, with Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Regina King, Delroy Lindo, and Lakeith Stanfield. Beetz reunited with director David Leitch for the action comedy, Bullet Train (2022), with Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock, Joey King, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Read Full Bio

gallery
Personal Life
Movies
Facts
FAQs

Zazie Beetz Photos and Videos

Personal life

Born in the Mitte section of Berlin, Zazie Beetz’s parents are African American mother Michelle, and German father, Thomas Beetz. Michelle and Thomas Beetz separated when Zazie Beetz was a young girl. By the time she was eight, Beetz was growing up in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood, performing in community theater and attending Muscota New School and the Harlem School of the Arts in New York. Beetz graduated from LaGuardia Arts High School, where she specialized in theater and acting. Zazie Beetz graduated with a BA in French from Skidmore College. Her younger brother is Justin. She is engaged to actor-writer David Rysdahl, with whom she has been involved in a relationship since 2014. Her height is 5’ 6”.

Known For

Atlanta

Van (2016)

Joker

Sophie Dumond (2019)

Deadpool 2

Domino (2018)

Nine Days

Emma (2020)

Awards

Nominee, Best Supporting Actress, Emmy Awards (2018).

Primetime Emmy

Primetime Emmy

Primetime Emmy Awards

Zazie Beetz Movies

Actor

Collapse

Previous (19)

2026 |
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die
2026
Action, Adventure, Comedy
A "Man From the Future" arrives at a diner in Los Angeles where he must recruit the precise combination of disgruntled patrons to join him on a one-night quest to save the world from the terminal threat of a rogue artificial intelligence.
More Info Watch Now
asJanet
2026 |
They Will Kill You
They Will Kill You
2026
Action, Comedy, Horror
A woman takes a job as a housekeeper in a NYC high-rise, unaware of the building's history of disappearances. She soon realizes the community is shrouded in mystery.
More Info Watch Now
asAsia Reaves
2025 |
The Bad Guys 2
The Bad Guys 2
2025
Animation, Action, Adventure
The Bad Guys are struggling to find trust and acceptance in their newly minted lives as Good Guys, when they are pulled out of retirement and forced to do "one last job" by an all-female squad of criminals.
More Info Watch Now
asDiane Foxington
2024 |
Joker: Folie à Deux
Joker: Folie à Deux
2024
Drama, Musical, Thriller
Struggling with his dual identity, failed comedian Arthur Fleck meets the love of his life, Harley Quinn, while incarcerated at Arkham State Hospital.
More Info Watch Now
asSophie Dumond
2022 |
The Bad Guys
The Bad Guys
2022
Animation, Adventure, Comedy
To avoid prison, a gang of notorious animal criminals pretends to seek being rehabilitated, only for their leader to realize that he genuinely wants to change his ways.
More Info Watch Now
asDiane Foxington aka The Crimson Paw
2022 |
Bullet Train
Bullet Train
2022
Action, Comedy, Thriller
Five assassins aboard a swiftly-moving bullet train find out that their missions have something in common.
More Info Watch Now
asThe Hornet
2021 |
Nine Days
Nine Days
2021
Drama, Fantasy
A reclusive man conducts a series of interviews with human souls for a chance to be born.
More Info Watch Now
asEmma
2021 |
The Harder They Fall
The Harder They Fall
2021
Action, Drama, Western
When an outlaw discovers his enemy is being released from prison, he reunites his gang to seek revenge.
More Info Watch Now
asMary Fields
2020 |
Still Here
Still Here
2020
Crime, Drama, Thriller
A New York journalist who gets assigned the story of a missing African-American young girl, risks his career and takes the matter into his own hands trying to find her.
More Info Watch Now
asKeysha
2020 |
Seberg
Seberg
2020
Biography, Drama, Thriller
Inspired by real events in the life of French New Wave icon Jean Seberg. In the late 1960s, Hoover's FBI targeted her because of her political and romantic involvement with civil rights activist Hakim Jamal.
More Info Watch Now
asDorothy Jamal
2019 |
Lucy in the Sky
Lucy in the Sky
2019
Drama, Romance, Thriller
Astronaut Lucy Cola returns to Earth after a transcendent experience during a mission to space, and begins to lose touch with reality in a world that now seems too small.
More Info Watch Now
asErin Eccles
2019 |
Joker
Joker
2019
Crime, Drama, Thriller
Arthur Fleck, a party clown and a failed stand-up comedian, leads an impoverished life with his ailing mother. However, when society shuns him and brands him as a freak, he decides to embrace the life of chaos in Gotham City.
More Info Watch Now
asSophie Dumond
2018 |
Sollers Point
Sollers Point
2018
Drama
Keith, a twenty-four-year-old newly released from prison and living with his dad under house arrest in Baltimore, is struggling to reestablish himself, within a community scarred by unemployment, neglect, and deeply entrenched segregation.
More Info Watch Now
asCourtney
2018 |
Deadpool 2
Deadpool 2
2018
Action, Adventure, Comedy
Foul-mouthed mutant mercenary Wade Wilson (a.k.a. Deadpool) assembles a team of fellow mutant rogues to protect a young boy with abilities from the brutal, time-traveling cyborg Cable.
More Info Watch Now
asDomino
2017 |
Geostorm
Geostorm
2017
Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
When the network of satellites designed to control the global climate starts to attack Earth, it's a race against the clock for its creator to uncover the real threat before a worldwide Geostorm wipes out everything and everyone.
More Info Watch Now
asDana
-- |
as Mary Fields
-- |
as Domino
-- |
as Kaya
-- |
The Dutchmanas Kaya

Facts About Zazie Beetz

Bilingual: Zazie Beetz grew up speaking German and English at home. She considers her German identity extremely important. Childhood Idols: Beetz’s show business heroes growing up were Josephine Baker, Nina Simone, and Billie Holliday. East to West: Beetz’s father Thomas emigrated from East Germany to the U.S. after the fall of the Berlin Wall, working as a janitor and studying to become a cabinetmaker.