Who Is Jayme Lawson? Actor Playing Young Michelle Obama In Series 'The First Lady'

The First Lady series—which premiered on April 17 on OTT—follows the lives of three first ladies of the United States including Michelle Obama. Actor Jayme Lawson plays the younger version of Michelle Obama in the Showtime series.

Lawson has surprised the audience as the young Michelle on the show. In a recent interview, the actor said that she is blessed to be in the profession in the current times since she can tell her own story. “This is a new era we’re entering into, where young women of colour are starting to have agency over their own stories in Hollywood,” she told a major publication.

Who Is Jayme Lawson?

• Jayme Lawson grew up in Maryland with six other siblings. The actor is an alumna of The Juilliard School, a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. The actor has reportedly also attended Washington DC-based performing arts high school called Duke Ellington School before graduating from Juilliard in 2019.
• Soon after Lawson graduated, she received the offer of her first-ever feature film titled Farewell Amor. The film by Ekwa Msangi revolves around Angolan immigrants in the United States; it is narrated from the perspective of three different characters.
• The actor, had reportedly, been participating in theatre camps as a child during summer holidays to hone her skills and has been a part of a Broadway drama as well.

Suggested Reading: Why Do Emmys Fail To Award Actors of Colour, Again And Again?

• Lawson was a part of the For Coloured Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf written by Ntozake Shange. She was part of the revival of the Broadway piece which weaved interconnected stories of love, empowerment, struggle and loss of seven African-American women into a complex representation of sisterhood.
• The actor last featured in the 2022 Batman film starring Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Collin Farrell and others. She was cast in The Batman as Bella Reál, a mayoral candidate for Gotham City.
• Jayme will be seen in Chinonye Chukwu’s Till which is expected to release on October 7, the story of Emmett Till’s mother, in which Lawson plays journalist and activist Myrlie Evers, wife of Medgar Evers.
• She will then star in the period epic The Woman King opposite her First Lady co-star Viola Davis. The film is expected to release on September 16 this year.