The 2026 Heermans-McCalmon Distinguished Guest Artist, Dominique Thorne ’19, visited Cornell on September 9 and 10, 2026 for a series of events. She led an acting master class with students in the Department of Performing and Media Arts (PMA), and took part in screenings of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever at Cornell Cinema and an episode of Ironheart at the Schwartz Center’s Kiplinger Theatre. The visit culminated in a keynote conversation between Thorne and PMA Department Chair Professor Samantha Noelle Sheppard, followed by a Q&A with students.
Thorne began her career with supporting roles in If Beale Street Could Talk and Judas and the Black Messiah before joining the Marvel universe. In 2022, she debuted the character of Riri Williams in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and reprised the role as the protagonist of Ironheart, earning her a nomination for an NAACP Image Award. Sheppard described the show as a story of “grief, friendship, family, community, technology, and power” and that the character of Riri felt “singular.”
Thorne further reflected on the character. “We see a young girl who’s trying, but what does it mean to be so exceptional that you’re singular? What does it look like if she’s totally normal at one moment and then having flashbacks of losing her father? So I thought it was all very grounded, and that was the most important thing to me.”
One student asked about the motif of grief around water in both Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, where Riri nearly drowns, and in Ironheart, where she grows from past trauma by learning to swim. “Your eye is beautiful,” remarked Thorne. “That moment when we see Riri dive into the water came out of a conversation I had with the producers. I advocated for it. If there was anything Riri took from her experience in Wakanda, it was how to swim. I did that entire scene myself, one breath hold, thank you very much” with a smile and to cheers from the audience.
Thorne also reflected on her time at Cornell, during which she graduated with a degree in human development from the College of Human Ecology, with a minor in inequality studies, while she was regularly making 4-5 audition tapes a week. “I just heard this voice in the back of my head that said you will never get the things that you want if you don’t first tend to the things inside you. The very next year is when I got [If Beale Street Could Talk]” which she filmed during the fall break of her junior year. Thorne said that her time at PMA was a “supercharged experience. I soon learned that the most honest way to actually excel academically was to honor myself holistically and so I needed this outlet.” Turning to the audience, she said “take the time to push the limits and the bounds of who you think you are while you’re here.”
As a Cornell student, Thorne was introduced to Wanawake Wa Wari, a cooperative living space for Black women on campus. It was in this co-op that she “learned about the storied history of Black folks at Cornell. What they had to offer is what ultimately opened the door to me into the Black community here. Joining was the best decision I made.”
Later, entering the TV and film business she recalled “realizing that there are still so many ways in which Black people, people of color in general, and women, are pigeonholed to the limitations of an industry that is meant to be creative, but in reality, is run by capitalists. Wanting to uplift that shared humanity in a system that has never been able to embrace and support that.”
Towards the end of the conversation, Sheppard asked what Thorne wished she’d known as a student at Cornell. “You do all these things that seem rote,” said Thorne, “but when curtain comes up you lock in and magic happens. That sort of flow is so nourishing to the soul and the spirit and that’s why we return and do it again and again and again.”
