Two Black Actors Join The Hunger Games

Two Black Actors Join ‘The Hunger Games’Dayo Okeniyi and Amanda Stenberg Added to Film
by Wilson Morales

April 18, 2011

Hollywood newcomers Dayo Okeniyi and Amanda Stenberg will play Thresh and Rue in the adaptation of the Suzanne Collins‘ best selling futuristic young adult novel, ‘The Hunger Games,’ stated EW.

Directed by Gary Ross, the film has already cast Academy Award nominee Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss and Josh Hutcherson as Peeta.

Liam Hemsworth has also already been cast, as Katniss’s best friend back home, Gale Hawthorn.

Okeniyi, playing the physically imposing tribute from District 11, has appeared in a short called ‘Eyes to See’ and will be featured in the upcoming horror film, ‘Slew Hampshire.’

Stenberg, who’s playing Katniss’ arena ally Rue, is also a fellow District 11 tribute and the youngest in the Games, has roles in the Zoe Saldana thriller ‘Colombiana’ and the upcoming Sam Worthington-Chloe Moretz murder mystery ‘The Fields.’

Suzanne Collins’ trilogy of best-selling Young Adult novels – “The Hunger Games”, “Catching Fire” and “Mockingjay” – center around 16 year old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in District 12, a poor area in post-apocalyptic America. The Capitol, the shadowy and oppressive body that governs the 12 districts, holds an annual event in which two children under 18 from each district are randomly selected and sent into an arena to fight to the death. Twenty-four kids, only one comes out alive. When Katniss’s 12-year-old sister Prim’s name is called, she volunteers herself instead. There she meets the 23 kids she’ll have to kill in order to survive, including Peeta Mellark, her fellow tribute from District 12 who becomes an ally and love interest as their involvement in the Hunger Games clashes with the Capitol’s plans.

The Hunger Games is due to release March 23, 2012.