Over the last few years, Natasha Rothwell has become a household name thanks to her work in films, TV series, and miniseries. The former SNL writer has accolades in writing, acting, producing, and directing. While it may have taken a few years for Rothwell’s career to take off, the two-time Emmy nominee has quickly made quite the name for herself.
As a retired teacher turned actress, Rothwell has taken her skill and played a teacher in a few roles. She starred in the 2018 film Love, Simon as Mrs. X. She was able to reprise her role in the series, now named Love, Victor, which has just announced its third season. Rothwell additionally found success in Hollywood thanks to a few major roles like within the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. She starred in the first film and reprised her role in the second along with most of the original Sonic cast.
Rothwell also appeared in Mike White’s Emmy-winning limited seriesThe White Lotus. Rothwell herself was nominated for her role as the Spa Manager, Belinda, who spends the week being led on by Jennifer Coolidge’s character, who expressed interest in helping Belinda open her own spa. In an interview with Deadline, Rothwell explained how she was able to use her role as Belinda as a way to give a voice to the voiceless. A quality that you can find in many of Rothwell’s roles. Indeed, Rothwell is on the rise, having recently wrapped filming on Wonka. Here are her best performances so far, ranked.
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4 Love, Simon
20th Century Studios
In the 2018 film Love, Simon, we get to see Rothwell as she plays Ms. Albright, who is the drama teacher at Simon’s school. Her purpose in the film is important as she stands up to bullies who were making fun of Simon after he was outed. They made a huge spectacle in the cafeteria and Ms. Albright rightfully put them in their place. She did reprise her role for one episode in the spinoff series Love, Victor, where she was promoted to the school’s Vice principal.
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The based on a novel film is about high school senior Simon Spier (Nick Robinson), who is a closeted gay teen. He starts up a love connection via email with a boy who goes by the name “Blue” and spends most of the film trying to figure out who he is. During that search, he is outed to the entire school, causing everything in his life to change.
3 Sonic the Hedgehog (1 & 2)
Via: Sega Sammy
Rothwell’s performance in both Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was unforgettable. She played Rachel, sister to Maddie (Tika Sumpter) and sister-in-law to Tom (James Marsden). She did not approve of Maddie and Tom’s marriage and spent much of the first film being tied up so that she could not call the authorities on Tom, who was wanted by the government for domestic terrorism. In the second film, Rachel is getting married and decides that it’s time she and Tom bury the hatchet, as long as he does not ruin her wedding day. It turns out the wedding, including Rachel’s husband-to-be, was all a scheme to capture Sonic.
Both films follow Sonic the Hedgehog from the Japanese video games series. He is an alien-like creature with super-speed that Dr. Robotnik, played by Jim Carrey, wants to capture and conduct experiments on him. Both films follow Sonic and his friends fight to evade capture from the evil genius.
2 Insecure
HBO
Insecure is one of few shows where Rothwell was a triple threat. She starred in 32 of the 44 episodes, wrote 17 of them, and even directed one. The HBO comedy was created by Issa Rae, who starred as fictionalized version of herself in the show. Rothwell has appeared in each of the five seasons as Kelli Prenny, a woman who is funny, supportive, and stood up for those who needed her.
The show follows mainly Issa and her best friend Molly, played by Yvonne Orji, as they deal with everyday life as modern-day Black women. The show deals with social and racial issues that relate to the contemporary Black experience, from love and romance to friendships and hardships.
1 The White Lotus
HBO Max
The White Lotus is an HBO Max anthology series that has recently announced its second season with an entirely new cast. Rothwell played Belinda, the spa manager, in the first season. During the first episode, she gives a spa session to Tanya, played by Jennifer Coolidge, which sparks an interesting friendship. Tanya continues to come back to Belinda and explains that she would like to invest in Belinda and help her open her own place. Tanya then becomes distracted by a man and how she will spread her mother’s ashes but continues to string Belinda along. By the end of the week, Belinda has all but given up.
In perhaps one of her best moments, she tells another guest at the hotel to essentially “suck it up” and that she is not a therapist. Until then, Belinda has been understanding, kind, and compassionate — which is ultimately a great character — but fans were cheering for her once she finally stood up for herself.
