Adele James: 5 Things To Know About The Actress Playing Cleopatra In New Netflix Series

Get to know Adele James, the British actress whose role in Netflix’s ‘Queen Cleopatra’ has sparked major controversy.

• Adele James is a British actress and screenwriter.
• She plays Cleopatra in a new Netflix series.
• Her casting has sparked major controversy.

Adele James has a huge new opportunity thanks to Netflix. The 27-year-old actress is playing Egyptian ruler Cleopatra in Jada Pinkett Smith‘s docudrama series that premiers May 10. Adele’s casting in Queen Cleopatra has caused major controversy. Critics are unhappy that Adele, who is half Black, is playing Cleopatra, who was of European descent. But the director of the series has spoken out in defense of Adele and explained why she’s the perfect fit for the role. Here is everything you need to know about Adele.

Adele is facing criticism for playing Cleopatra.

There’s been major backlash towards Adele and Netflix over her role in Queen Cleopatra. An Egyptian lawyer filed a lawsuit against Netflix, claiming that the series is trying to “erase the Egyptian identity,” according to BBC News. Queen Cleopatra director Tina Gharavi did a guest essay for Variety and defended the decision to cast Adele as Cleopatra. “After much hang-wringing and countless auditions, we found in Adele James an actor who could convey not only Cleopatra’s beauty, but also her strength,” Tina wrote in the essay. She also mentioned that Cleopatra looks more like Adele than Elizabeth Taylor, who played the Egyptian queen in the 1963 film.

Adele is British.

Adele was born in the United Kingdom. She went to Richmond-upon-Thames College and the University of Bristol.

Adele was in the show Casualty.

Adele’s biggest acting role, before Queen Cleopatra, was the BBC series Casualty. Adele played Tina Mollett for 21 episodes in 2020 and 2021, according to her IMDb.

Adele has a podcast.

Adele hosts the podcast In The Room with Adele James. She describes her podcast in her Instagram bio as “An in-real-time memoir of surviving and thriving as a working actor. Occasionally ft. industry guests.” Adele has not released a new podcast episode since March 20.

Adele is a screenwriter.

Adele made her screenwriting debut with her 2018 short film Last Call, which won a “Best Screenplay” award, according to her IMDb. Adele has continued to write her own television and movie scripts for production companies.