Some people are unfortunately magnets for tragedy, with today’s featured actress just one of many stars with a history full of family loss and grief. N’Bushe Wright is probably most recognized for her part in Blade all the way back in 1999, but what’s happened in the meantime, and is she still around in film these days?
Getting a leg up in the business by being born in New York City in 1970 to a musician father and psychologist mother, N’Bushe would take up dance in the beginning.
Attending prestigious dance academies throughout the city as a child, she worked her way up through the ranks before taking a flying leap into the acting game instead.
Not that it was an easy leap, as she transitioned onto screens through her dancing in music videos for rap groups before landing a lead role in 1992’s Zebrahead.
Dancing to Fame
Her role in the distinctly 90s film would bring her acclaim, and lead to N’Bushe taking on a recurring part in the short-lived series I’ll Fly Away, which was surprisingly progressive for the time it was made.
Unfortunately, it would be canceled after only two seasons leaving N’Bushe to find work elsewhere. That elsewhere being Homicide: Life on the Streets and feature film Fresh, about young drug mule John Wick-ing the people making him do it. Good for him.
The next year saw her get some more star power alongside Keith David in Dead Presidents.
She would hop between film and television frequently, often just taking guest spots on procedurals or leading small indie roles while also keeping up with her love of dance on the side.
She would hit the big-time blockbuster money in 1998 when she starred in what can be seen as Marvel’s first box office success, Blade.
Blade: The Original Marvel Masterpiece
Look, Blade was a revolution in superhero cinema at the time of release, being a rated R movie with hotshot Wesley Snipes and a delightfully campy Stephen Dorff while soaking sets in blood wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card for a Marvel film in 1998.
N’Bushe would play the part of Karen, a doctor working on a potential cure for vampirism before being hunted down by Deacon Frost.
Let’s not forget the genius that this movie gave us as well, foremost the line by Blade himself “Some motherf*ckers always trying to ice-skate uphill”.
Which is apparently a direct quote by Wesley Snipes that the writers decided to actually put in the script. Not to mention the superb sequel directed by Guillermo del Toro and bringing in the likes of Ron Pearlman and Norman Reedus. It’s going to be very hard for anyone to make a Blade movie better than Blade 2.
Tragedy Strikes
After that, you would think her career would take off to the sky, but unfortunately, it seemed to just stall in place with a few guest spots on television before an almost complete standstill from around 2006 onward, with only a brief appearance in a low budget indie comedy called A Talent for Trouble in 2018.
While she hasn’t said why she stepped away initially, her last roles being a bit part in Chapelle Show and leading a couple of indie dramas, it’s certainly understandable why she ended up taking an extended leave from the business later in the 2000s.
N’Bushe Wright’s mother, unfortunately, passed away in 2009, taken suddenly from a forty-plus-year marriage and her time as a mother and educator.
It’s enough of a toll on anyone to lose a parent, but in 2011 tragedy hit her again in one of the cruelest ways imaginable.
Her father, Stanley Wright, was an accomplished jazz musician and local celebrity in their New York City neighborhood. However, his death would lead to a kind of grief no family should have to suffer.
After disappearing for a week N’Bushe’s father was found murdered in his home. According to reports he had been stabbed and his body stuffed in a storage trunk in his basement before the killer fled the scene. Sadly, the case is still open and his murder has yet to be solved.
Where is N’Bushe Wright now?
N’Bushe is still open to acting these days, posting on her Instagram in November that she would love to be a part of Marvel’s new Blade film alongside Mahershala Ali.
While of course the film is having its own issues with switching directors and script delays (oh boy is that about to get worse), nothing is necessarily off the table for the actress.
These days she seems more content to stick to dance though, frequently posting videos of herself dancing on her Instagram as well as various callbacks to her famous roles or promoting upcoming events where she can be seen.
Hopefully, some closure can eventually be found for herself as well as her two siblings about the loss of their father, and hopefully, it can be the last of tragedy that N’Bushe experiences for a long, long time.
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