Saniyya Sidney facts for kids

Saniyya Sidney (born October 30, 2006) is a talented American actress. She has been recognized with many important awards. These include nominations for three Black Reel Awards, two Critics' Choice Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Saniyya started her acting journey in independent and short films. She became well-known for her role in the horror TV series American Horror Story: Roanoke in 2016. Her big break came with the historical drama movie Fences (2016). For this film, she was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the cast.

She also appeared in the true-story movie Hidden Figures (2016) and the superhero film Fast Color (2018). Later, she earned praise for playing the main role in the vampire drama The Passage (2019) on FOX. One of her most famous roles was playing a young Venus Williams in the movie King Richard (2021). For this role, she was nominated for the Black Reel Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer.

Saniyya Sidney's Acting Journey

Saniyya Sidney started acting in 2012. Her first role was Amity in a short horror movie called The Babysitters. After that, she appeared as Kizzy Waller in the TV miniseries Roots.

Early TV and Movie Roles

In 2016, Saniyya got a recurring role as Flora Harris in the horror TV series American Horror Story: Roanoke. This role helped her become more recognized. In the same year, she starred in two important movies. She played Raynell Maxson in the period drama film Fences. She also played Constance Johnson in the true-story drama film Hidden Figures. Both movies were released in December 2016 and received great reviews. For Fences, she was nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Acting Ensemble and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

Leading Roles and Breakthroughs

Saniyya then starred as Lila in the superhero movie Fast Color. This film first showed at the South by Southwest festival in March 2018. It was released in theaters the next year. In January 2019, Saniyya was chosen for the main role of Amy Bellafonte in the FOX series The Passage. Her acting in this series was highly praised, even though the show only lasted one season. That same year, she played Riley in the Netflix comedy special Kevin Hart's Guide to Black History.

Playing Venus Williams

In 2021, Saniyya appeared in the true-story drama film King Richard. She played Venus Williams, the famous tennis player, alongside Will Smith. Saniyya had never played tennis before getting the role. She learned to play just like Venus, even using her right hand for the role, even though Saniyya is left-handed! Critics loved her performance. Variety magazine praised her for handling both the emotional and athletic parts of her character. She received several awards and nominations for this role, including for Black Reel Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer.

Future Projects

Saniyya is also set to appear as Sasha Obama in The First Lady for Showtime. In January 2022, she was chosen to play Claudette Colvin in the drama film Spark. This movie is the first one directed by actor Anthony Mackie.

Filmography

Movies

Television Shows

Awards and Nominations

Individual Awards

Team Awards

See also

In Spanish: Saniyya Sidney para niños