Mimi Ndiweni

"If you head over to your local cinema NOW you will catch Naomi Ackie blowing minds. Also if you promise not to blink, not even once you may also catch me running round the galaxy in a bright orange suit. Thank JJ Abrams and Nina Gold for making a Star Wars set my playground for a bit ❤️"

- Mimi Ndiweni

Mimi Ndiweni (born August 31, 1991) is a British actress who portrays Nimi Chireen in the 2019 film Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker (credited as "Resistance Officer"). She best known for playing Fringilla Vigo in Netflix's The Witcher, Tilly Brockless in the television series Mr Selfridge and Ester/Jekasai in the stage production of The Convert at The Gate Theatre in London.

Early life
Ndiweni grew up in Guildford, Surrey and started acting as a teenager, joining the Yvonne Arnaud Mill Street Studios while she was in secondary school. From there she went on to complete a degree at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. Her mother is English and her father is Zimbabwean.

At age 21 she won the Spotlight Prize – beating off competition from students from 20 top UK drama schools in front of industry experts – with her performance of Jenna Marbles' How to Get Guys to Leave You Alone. The Spotlight Prize has previously been won by the likes of Dame Judi Dench, Zoe Wanamaker, and [[Wikipedia:Robert Lindsay|Robert Lindsay.

Career
Ndiweni has previously stated that theater is her first love, and was taken on by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2013 after graduating from Royal Welsh. While in the RSC her most notable roles were in Wendy & Peter Pan as Tiger Lily, King Lear where she played Cordelia, and Hamlet where she played Ophelia.

She left the RSC in 2015 to take on a regular appearance in the television show Mr Selfridge, but has returned to the RSC on a number occasions as a guest. Ndiweni also toured North America with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2018, playing the part of Cordelia in King Lear in New York, and Ophelia in Hamlet in Washington DC.

In 2017 she had her first leading role, playing Jekesai/Ester in Danai Gurira's The Convert at The Gate Theatre in London.

Ndiweni's first appearance in a major film was as the Slipper Lady in Disney's Cinderella in 2015. She then played Eshe in The Legend of Tarzan in 2016, starring alongside Margot Robbie. In 2016 she played Tilly Brockless in Mr Selfridge for eight episodes of the last season, and in May 2017 played the part of Abby in the Doctor Who episode "Oxygen" during the show's tenth series.

In 2019, Ndiweni portrayed the Nilfgaardian sorceress Fringilla Vigo in the Netflix series The Witcher.