‘The Other Black Girl’s Sinclair Daniel Is the Horror Star of Summer 2023

Summer is coming to an end and we have yet to elect our “It Girl” of Summer 2023. Well, stop the presses! I have found the person we’ve all been looking for. Sinclair Daniel, star of Hulu’s The Other Black Girl and Insidious: The Red Door, is just what we needed this season. She delivers memorable performances in the two twisty projects, which both position her as the one to keep your eyes on.

The actor takes the lead in the new Hulu drama, based on the novel of the same name by Zakiya Dalila Harris. Daniel plays Nellie, an editorial assistant who struggles with being the only Black employee at her company. 

Nellie’s day-to-day tasks are weighed down by her desperate colleagues and bosses, who seem to crave her approval, but refuse to value her voice. In the first episode, she is halted by a colleague who read an article about making Black people feel more included in workplace environments and laments about how it deeply affected her. After grilling her to see if she read it, the colleague tells Nellie that she needs to read the piece and report back on how it makes her feel.

Another egregious moment comes when Nellie expresses her dissatisfaction with an upcoming book, written by a white man, featuring a Black female character, who she finds to be very one-note and unrealistic. Nellie gets in trouble when she expresses her criticism and is forced to apologize to the author. 

To her boss, Nellie recommends that the company plan a sensitivity read of the book, and her idea is vehemently denied. Or so she thinks. Instead, her boss pitches the idea as her own during a team meeting. 

Early in the series, Nellie is joined by another Black woman, Hazel (Ashleigh Murray), who is a new hire for the company. Nellie is hesitant to rely on her and miscommunication causes an early rift between the two. However, as the story plays on, they slowly earn each other’s trust, until a series of sinister events begin to occur.

Daniel, who previously starred in solo episodes of The Good Fight and Madame Secretary, delivers a memorable performance as Nellie and effortlessly keeps up with the pace of the show. Even when the story begins to fizzle, the actor leaves viewers craving more. She plays to all of her character’s emotions – her insecurities and disillusionment with the publishing industry, and also her ambitions and sense of security when it comes to her skills and talents. And more notably, her paranoia and fear when she begins to suspect that something isn’t quite right with Hazel.

Don’t just take it from me, others feel the same way. Proma Khosla from Indiewire wrote, “The Other Black Girl hinges upon Daniel’s performance, and she absolutely nails it,” and Candice Frederick from Huffington Post said, “Daniel is in most of the scenes and serves remarkably as the audience’s wide-eyed proxy.”

The Other Black Girl isn’t Daniel’s only captivating performance this summer. As mentioned, she also made her debut appearance in Patrick Wilson’s directorial debut and the supposed final installment in the hit Insidious franchise, Insidious: The Red Door.

Daniel stars as Chris Winslow, a new friend of Dalton Lambert (Ty Simpkins) – the son of Josh Lambert, played by Wilson. In the role, Daniel is a goofy, breath of fresh air in a fairly stale, but sensible movie that relies heavily on sentimentality, rather than the horror and lore that Insidious fans have grown to love. Chris meets Dalton when she arrives at his college campus and finds that she’s been assigned as his roommate, due to her androgynous name. Together, the two outcasts go to a frat party where a spiritual entity haunts Dalton. Chris believes him and helps explore what the entity is trying to tell him, which puts her own life at risk. 

Decider’s John Serba named her as the “performance worth watching” in his review of the movie in August, writing, “I liked Sinclair Daniel in her limited screen time, since she appears to be the only character capable of smiling without fear of her face shattering into bits and crumbs.”

With two excellent performances under her belt, what’s next for Daniel? She is set to star in the 2024 horror movie The Geechee Witch: A Boo Hag Story, along with two short films that are in post-production. 

We hope Daniel keeps the momentum going! First, Summer 2023; next up, iconic Screen Queen status.

The Other Black Girl is currently streaming on Hulu.