Alexandra Shipp (born July 16, 1991 in Phoenix, Arizona) is an American actress.
She's best known for her roles as Kimberly Woodruff (the wife of Ice Cube) in Straight Outta Compton and Ororo Munroe / Storm in the X-Men films.
In June 2021, she came out as LGBT+, without giving specifics.
Selected filmography:
- Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009) as Valentina
- Straight Outta Compton (2015) as Kimberly Woodruff
- X-Men as Ororo Munroe / Storm
- X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
- Deadpool 2 (2018, cameo)
- Dark Phoenix (2019)
- Tragedy Girls (2017) as McKayla Hooper
- Love, Simon (2018) as Abby
- Dude (2018) as Amelia
- Jexi (2019) as Cate
- Shaft (2019)
- Telling Lies (2019)
- Endless (2020) as Riley
- tick, tick... BOOM! (2021) as Susan
- Asking For It (2021) as Regina
- Space Oddity (2022) as Daisy Taylor
- Barbie (2023) as Writer Barbie
- Anyone but You (2023) as Claudia
Tropes associated with her work:
- Actor-Shared Background: Dude and Endless both have her characters shown to be biracial like her, with black and white parents, though in both cases they only appeared briefly.
- The Cast Show Off:
- She's given a chance to sing a show stopper in tick, tick... BOOM! ("Come To Your Senses").
- She sings in Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B as well. In this case, it was because the film was not sanctioned by the singer's family and thus did not have the rights to Aaliyah's voice.
- Creator Backlash: She hinted in interviews that she wasn't happy about Storm being Demoted to Extra in Dark Phoenix.
- Dyeing for Your Art:
- To play Aaliyah, who was extremely fit, she describes doing "a million crunches" in between scenes.
- She learned how to play drums for Drumline: A Musical Beat.
- Fake Nationality: She puts on a Kenyan accent to play Storm in X-Men: Apocalypse. Although she's introduced in Egypt, the character hails from Kenya in the comics.
- Method Acting:
- For The Princess of R&B, she spoke to several people who knew Aaliyah, watched hours of footage of her and listened repeatedly to all her songs in the hopes of getting her mannerisms down.
- For Straight Outta Compton, she met with the real Kim and studied her behaviour.
- The Other Darrin: She did not play the child version of Storm that cameo'd in X-Men: First Class.
- Playing Against Type: An unusual role for her is her supporting one as the caring older sister in All the Bright Places.
- Separated-at-Birth Casting: Her resemblance to Halle Berry was noted when she was cast to play the teenage Storm in X-Men: Apocalypse.
- Star-Making Role: She got a lot of positive attention for Straight Outta Compton. And despite the negative press surrounding Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B, it did raise her profile.
- Typecasting: She's made a habit of playing many real-life figures in music-themed biopics. She played Aaliyah in The Princess of R&B, Kimberly Woodruff in Straight Outta Compton and an Expy of Janet Charleston in tick, tick... BOOM!. Drumline: A Musical Beat is not a biopic but it is music-themed.
- Uncredited Role: She's uncredited for her cameo in Deadpool 2.
- What Could Have Been:
- Zendaya was originally announced as playing Aaliyah in The Princess of R&B. She stepped down amid criticism of colorism, and Alexandra replaced her. Zendaya later claimed it was more to do with the lack of production values - and how Aaliyah's family were not being involved with the project.
- She originally performed "Green Green Dress"
for tick, tick... BOOM!, but it was cut for pacing reasons. Thus the only song she sings in the film is "Come To Your Senses".
