Noma dumezweni biography of martin

The following story contains light spoilers for Only Murders in the Building Season 3, Episode 2, "The Beat Goes On."

WHILE THE MAIN draw to Only Murders in the Building, Hulu's Emmy-winning hit comedic murder mystery series, has always been its three above-the-line stars (Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez), part of what makes the show a magical, cozy watch is the fact that just about every character, whether played by an A-list star or someone who looks maybe, kinda, familiar, is fully fleshed out and feels like a real relatable person in this world. No one is flat.

So, while Season 3 of Only Murders in the Building does indeed add a couple of A-list legends (in Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd), there are several other less-famous-but-still-wonderful talents who enter the show and immediately feel like characters we know, understand, and want to see more of.

One of the most interesting of those in the early goings is Maxine, a theater critic who clearly goes way back with Oliver Putnam (Short). Maxine and Oliver share a conversation at Ben Glenroy's (Rudd) funeral that not only tells us a lot about Oliver's history in the theater world, but also tells us a whole lot about both characters.

Maxine is played by a familiar face, too—the always wonderful Noma Dumezweni—making for ingredients of a dynamic that we've only seen a bit of so far, but are eager to see more of as Season 3 progresses.

So who, exactly, is Maxine in Only Murders in the Building Season 3?

While I suspect we'll see more of Maxine throughout Season 3 of Only Murders in the Building, it's clear that she's got a long history with Oliver Putnam; their conversation in "The Beat Goes On" touches on his past plays, and she seems to be able to recall each of them in detail. Oliver also knows her well; her tell, he says, is that when she likes a show, she'll close he

Noma is an internationally recognised actress who currently stars as Hermione in the sell-out West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Her theatre credits include the title role in Linda at the Royal Court Theatre and roles in Macbeth, The Winter’s Tale and Romeo and Juliet for the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as work alongside Jude Law in Henry V.

Born in Swaziland, of South African parents, Noma lived in Botswana, Kenya and Uganda before coming to England with her family as a child. She first lived in Suffolk, where she was educated, before moving to London.

Dr Anne-Marie Evans, director of English Literature at York St John University says, “We are delighted to be hosting this interview with Noma at the start of what promises to be an exciting and though-provoking month of Black History Month events.”

Monday’s free event will be a discussion about Noma's numerous roles including her directorial debut I See You at the Royal Court, as well as her appearance in the award winning A Human Being Died That Night which toured to the Hampstead Theatre, the Market Theatre Johannesburg and Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. Both plays explore reconciliation and South Africa after apartheid.

The event starts at 3.00pm in Quad South Hall and must be booked in advance on Eventbrite.

While walking through Borough Market one day, she ran into an old friend, Benedict Wong. He updated her on his life. “He said his old agents [weren’t] working for him as an East Asian actor—always being put in these boxes—and they just made one mistake too many so he had to let them go,” she says. “He could see I was [questioning] the business, and he said, ‘Just hold onto your art…. You need to come out of yourself and look at all the work you’ve done.’” Dumezweni found inspiration to persevere. So, jump-cut to a little over a year ago, when Dumezweni and Wong ran into each other again. “He said, ‘I’ve finally got agents again,’” she recalls. “I went, ‘Shut the fuck up.’… Watching his lovely gorgeousness in the Marvel world, I freaked out—like, ‘What? You’ve only just done it?’”

When Dumezweni got Cursed Child in 2016, her life changed. She had to navigate the exposure, initially quite ugly, of being a Black actress taking on a role previously cast as white. J.K. Rowling strongly defended the decision at the time on social media, a major show of support that Dumezweni felt from the author throughout. “I really like Jo, the person I’ve met a few times,” she says. When asked about Rowling’s more recent public comments about gender, widely criticized as transphobic, Dumezweni strongly defends queer rights, saying, “The trans conversation has now become the bogeyman for any [political] excuse,” but demurs beyond that: “I cannot speak to the trans conversation in relation to J.K. I can speak to my love for the stories.” 

However, she says of Max’s upcoming HarryPotter series, “For me that’s too soon. It’s too soon! We need another generation. It’s almost like the kids have got to be grandparents for the TV series to come out again.” She has a burner Twitter account, through which she gauged reactions to the recent announcement of the show: “Looking at that conversation of ‘Is Hermione going to be Black? What’s canon?’—that’s why it’s too close. It