Zazie Beetz

Zazie Olivia Beetz is a German-American actress born on June 1, 1991. She is widely known for her starring role as Van in the FX comedy-drama series Atlanta (2016–2022), a performance that earned her a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award. She has since expanded her career across major feature films, animated projects, and television series.

Beetz was born in Berlin, Germany, to Thomas Beetz, a German cabinet maker who immigrated to the United States in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and an African-American social worker from New York. Her parents separated when she was very young, and she raised alongside a younger brother named Justin. Named after the main character of Raymond Queneau's novel Zazie in the Metro, she spent her early childhood in Berlin and New York City before settling permanently in New York at eight years old, growing up bilingual in German and English.

Raised in New York's Washington Heights neighborhood, Beetz experienced feelings of discomfort surrounding her mixed-race identity during her youth. She developed an interest in performance while attending Muscota New School, participating in community theater and appearing on local stages. She went on to graduate from LaGuardia Arts High School in 2009 and earned a bachelor's degree in French from Skidmore College in 2013, after which she lived in Paris for a year.

Upon returning to the United States, Beetz spent a year working as a waitress before earning her breakthrough role in Atlanta. Her performance led to a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2018. During this time, she also starred in the Netflix anthology series Easy from 2016 to 2019. In 2021, she began voicing the character Amber Bennett in the adult animated superhero series Invincible.

Beetz made her feature film appearance in the disaster movie Geostorm (2017). She achieved further prominence portraying the Marvel Comics character Domino in the superhero film Deadpool 2 (2018), earning a nomination for a Teen Choice Award for Choice Summer Movie Actress. She subsequently played the title character's neighbor in the psychological thriller Joker (2019), receiving a nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress, and later reprised the role in the 2024 sequel Joker: Folie à Deux.

In animation, Beetz provided the voice for Diane Foxington, also known as the Crimson Paw, in the DreamWorks Animation heist comedy film The Bad Guys (2022), receiving a nomination for a Black Reel Award for Outstanding Voice Performance. She returned to voice the character in the 2025 sequel, The Bad Guys 2.

In her personal life, Beetz met actor and writing partner David Rysdahl at an acting workshop, and the two have been together since 2014. The couple founded a production company called Sleepy Poppy, announced their engagement in 2022, and married in 2023.