Cynthia Addai-Robinson

Addai-Robinson was born in London; her mother is from Ghana and her father is a U.S. citizen. She moved to the U.S. when she was 4 and was raised by her mother in a suburb of Washington, D.C.[2] She graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland and Tisch School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater.[3] In addition, she trained at Lee Strasberg Theater Institute[4] and in dance forms ballet, jazz and tap.

After participating in several various Off-Broadway plays, Addai-Robinson got her first role on television in 2002 in an episode of The Education of Max Bickford. In following years, she made small appearances on television shows like Law & Order: Trial by Jury, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, CSI: Miami, Numb3rs and Justice. In 2006, she was originally cast to play Melanie Barnett in the American sitcom The Game,[5] but was replaced by Tia Mowry for unspecified reasons prior to the show's production.[6] In 2009, she got her first recurring role on the ABC drama FlashForward as the character Debbie, a nurse. The same year she appeared in Tina Mabry's independent film Mississippi Damned as Milena.

In 2011, Addai-Robinson made her big screen debut as the mother of Zoe Saldana's character (played by Amandla Stenberg) in Colombiana.[7]

Her biggest role came from 2012 to 2013 when she was cast as Naevia in the third season Spartacus: Vengeance and the fourth season Spartacus: War of the Damned after Lesley-Ann Brandt decided to leave the series.[8]

In early 2013, Addai-Robinson played Aja, a powerful witch who came to help Bonnie on The Vampire Diaries for two episodes. She made a brief appearance as an on looker in the crowd in the film Star Trek Into Darkness. She played Leslie in Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret, a television movie about the murder of Travis Alexander.[9] In September 2013, she was cast as the recurring character Amanda Waller in the hit The CW show Arrow.[10]

In March 2014, she was cast as Emily D. West in the History Channel 2015 miniseries Texas Rising.[11] Her performance was nominated for a Women's Image Network Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series.[12]

In January 2015, Addai-Robinson was cast in Gavin O'Connor's The Accountant, alongside Ben Affleck and J. K. Simmons, playing a U.S. Treasury Department analyst.[13] The film was released in October 2016.[14]

In March 2016, it was announced that she would be taking over Emily Rios's role from the television series Shooter as the female lead.[15]

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