Danai is from the Shona word *danai* — "love, to love" — common as a feminine first name in Zimbabwe. **Danai Gurira (born 1978)** — **American-Zimbabwean actress and playwright; played Michonne on AMC's *The Walking Dead* (2012-2020) for eight seasons; played Okoye, head of Wakanda's Dora Milaje, in five Marvel Cinematic Universe films — *Black Panther* (2018), *Avengers: Infinity War* (2018), *Endgame* (2019), *Black Panther: Wakanda Forever* (2022), and the upcoming Avengers films**. **Her 2015 play *Eclipsed* — about five Liberian women during the Second Liberian Civil War — was the first Broadway play with an all-Black, all-women cast, crew, and director (Liesl Tommy); Tony Award nomination for Best Play**. **Founded Love Our Girls in 2010, supporting girls' education and gender equality globally**. **MacArthur Fellowship semifinalist; Time 100 Most Influential People (2020)**. **Spent her teenage years in Zimbabwe where her parents worked at the University of Zimbabwe**.
Subject of countless 2010s-2020s Marvel and Walking Dead retrospectives.
Danai reduces to five — the number of Shona love.