A rising South African model and actress Charlbi Dean abruptly died yesterday in New York City from an unexpected sudden illness. She was just 32.
She was best known for playing Syonide, a recurring character on The CW’s DC Comics-inspired series “Black Lightning”.
She was about to get her big break with a major role in the Palme d’Or-winning comedy “Triangle of Sadness” which premiered in Cannes and co-stars Harris Dickinson and Woody Harrelson. That film is also an official selection of the Toronto and New York Film Festivals this year and is set for an October 7th theatrical release in the United States.
In the film, she plays model Yaya, one of the uber-rich guests invited for a cruise on a superyacht helmed by an unhinged captain (Harrelson) that ends catastrophically, leaving the survivors stranded on a desert island.
Charlbi Dean Kriek was born in 1990 at Cape Town, South Africa, she began modeling at age 6 and got her screen start in the 2010 South African boarding-school comedy Spud, starring John Cleese, then she went on to appear in the films Death Race 3: Inferno (2013), Blood in the Water (2016), Don’t Sleep (2017) and Porthole (2018).
She signed with UTA in January and was also repped by Silver Lining Entertainment.
