Tessa Thompson
Bukhman International Booker Prize 2027 judge
- Prizes judged
Tessa Thompson is an award-winning actress with an extensive and diverse history of working across film, television and stage
In 2019, she featured on the cover of Time magazine as a ‘Next Generation Leader’. In 2020 she cemented her status as a formidable producer with the launch of her production company, Viva Maude.
Tessa has starred in a number of films and TV series adapted by or inspired by literature, including His & Hers, released on Netflix earlier this year and adapted from Alice Feeney’s novel of the same name; Nia DaCosta’s film Hedda, inspired by Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress; and Rebecca Hall’s film adaptation of Nella Larsen’s classic novel, Passing. All three were produced or executive produced by Tessa.
In April this year Tessa made her Broadway debut opposite Adrien Brody in The Fear of 13, written by Lindsey Ferrentino and directed by David Cromer. The play, based on a 2015 documentary, had its world premiere at the Donmar Warehouse in Llondon and . It tells the true story of Nick Yarris, who spent more than two decades on death row before being exonerated by DNA evidence.
Translation gives us access to lives and histories we’d otherwise perhaps never reach, and counters a narrow worldview – building a broader, truer kind of empathy and curiosity
Tessa Thompson, Bukhman International Booker Prize 2027 judge