For her role as the titular character in Jessica Swale's 2015 play Nell Gwynn, she received an Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress nomination.

After roles in the films Beyond the Lights (2014) and Miss Sloane (2016), she co-starred in the Emmy Award-winning Black Mirror episode "San Junipero" (2016), for which she received acclaim.

In February 2021, Mbatha-Raw was appointed a global Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Gugulethu Sophia Mbatha-Raw was born on 21 April 1983[3][4][5] in Oxford, the daughter of Patrick Mbatha, a South African doctor, and Anne Raw, an English nurse.

As a student, her father was a member of the African National Congress and activist opposing apartheid in South Africa, and had to flee as a result.

[citation needed] In 2014, she spoke at the United Nations headquarters when the film was screened in honor of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

It is the story of Bennet Omalu, the forensic neuropathologist who first discovered extensive brain damage in NFL players due to concussions, and tried to put a stop to practices that contributed to the condition.

[citation needed] Mbatha-Raw starred opposite Matthew McConaughey in an American biopic on Newton Knight, a yeoman farmer, and resister of the Confederacy, in Free State of Jones (2016), directed by Gary Ross.

[28] In 2016, Mbatha-Raw appeared in "San Junipero", an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror,[29] and played a major supporting role in Miss Sloane, a drama about Washington lobbyists, starring Jessica Chastain.

[32] In 2017, Mbatha-Raw played Plumette in the live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, directed by Bill Condon and co-starring with Emma Watson and Dan Stevens.

[33] In 2018, she starred in a number of science fiction feature productions, including A Wrinkle in Time, directed by Ava DuVernay, and The Cloverfield Paradox.

The latter film made history with a marketing campaign that saw it released on the streaming platform Netflix directly after it was advertised worldwide at the 2018 Super Bowl.

[39] In April 2022, Mbatha-Raw was set to play the female lead in Netflix action film Lift co-starring Kevin Hart.