Rutina Wesley

Rutina Wesley born February 1 1979 is an American film stage and television actress best known for her role as Tara Thornton on the HBO series True Blood and Nova Bordelon on OWNs Queen Sugar Wesley was born and raised in Las Vegas Nevada Her father Ivery Wheeler is a professional tap dancer and her mother Cassandra Wesley was a showgirl She attended high school at the Las Vegas Academy of International Studies Performing and Visual Arts She studied dance at Simba Studios and the West Las Vegas Arts Center While at the Las Vegas Academy Wesley missed some auditions for college training programs She finally decided to attend the University of Evansville in Indiana After Wesley earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance in 2001 her grandmother suggested that she do a nursing course to have a practical fallback job but Wesley insisted on pursuing her artistic education She enrolled at the Juilliard School in 2001 and graduated in May 2005 Group 34 Her studies included a summer spent at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London In December 2006 Wesley was featured in David Hares Broadway play The Vertical Hour In 2007 Wesley also appeared in The Public Theater production of In Darfur by playwright Winter Miller costarring Heather Raffo and Aaron Lohr among others Wesley had a minor role in the 2005 film Hitch which was edited out in the final cut In 2007 she made her onscreen debut as the main character in the film How She Move from British director Ian Iqbal Rashid The character Raya Green who enters a stepdancing competition to secure funds for her education was inspired by Tony Manero portrayed by John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever Prior to the shooting of the film Wesley underwent a fiveweek dance rehearsal period Portraying a woman of Jamaican descent she also took dialect coaching for the role Wesley auditioned for the role Tara Thornton in the HBO series True Blood in 2007 and secured the part after creator Alan Ball chose her because she was the first person who showed Taras vulnerable side In January 2015 it was announced that Wesley had been cast in a recurring role on the NBC drama series Hannibal She portrayed Reba McClane a blind woman who enters into a relationship with Francis Dolarhyde Richard Armitage and helps soothe his murderous urgesat least at first Wesley appeared as Liza Warner in the fourth season of Arrow In 2016 Wesley was cast as the lead character Nova Bordelon in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama series Queen Sugar produced by Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey In 2023 Wesley portrayed Maria in the HBO series The Last of Us