Sydelle Noel

Sydelle Noel (born 16 July 1985) is an American actress, former professional athlete and model, best known for playing Cherry “Junkchain” Bang in the Netflix series GLOW (2017–2019), Xoliswa in Marvel’s Black Panther (2018) and Detective Tamara Green in Reacher (2022–). She was born and raised in Hollywood, Florida, a city in Broward County between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Her early ambitions were centred on athletics rather than acting, and she spent much of her childhood training and competing in track and field. Her father died when she was nine, a loss she later discussed in interviews, while sport became an increasingly important part of her teenage years. Noel excelled in sprinting, hurdling and jumping events, eventually earning an athletic scholarship to the University of Georgia in Athens. There, she competed for the university’s track and field programme, participating in the heptathlon, a demanding competition involving seven different events. Her ambition was to represent the United States at the Olympic Games, and after graduating she continued competing professionally, concentrating on the 100-metre hurdles and long jump.

Her athletics career ended prematurely when she suffered a stress fracture that prevented her from continuing at a competitive level. Having devoted most of her life to training, Noel struggled with the sudden loss of her professional ambitions. She later recalled spending almost a year largely withdrawn from physical activity, uncertain about what she wanted to do next. A suggestion from her sports manager that she consider athletic modelling eventually provided a new direction. She moved from Florida to Los Angeles, California, where she began modelling and appearing in commercials. Her first experiences in the entertainment industry also included working as a production assistant on commercials and music videos. While employed on a music video for Snoop Dogg’s single “Signs” (2005), featuring Justin Timberlake and Charlie Wilson, she was unexpectedly selected to appear on camera after the production team noticed her. Although she had taken some theatre classes at university, she had no extensive formal acting education and began attending additional classes in Los Angeles. She also worked in the offices of casting directors Kim Coleman and Vickie Thomas, gaining an understanding of auditions and the casting process before establishing herself as a professional actress.

Noel’s early screen appearances included a small part in the comedy series Everybody Hates Chris (2005–2009), followed by her first substantial speaking role in the medical drama Private Practice (2007–2013). In an episode broadcast in 2007, she portrayed Nicole Clemons, a young track athlete whose Olympic ambitions are threatened by a serious heart condition. The part closely resembled Noel’s own experience of losing her athletic career, and she later recalled becoming emotional during the audition because the dialogue reflected feelings she had struggled to express after her injury. She continued appearing in television series including Lincoln Heights (2007–2009), Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior (2011), Bones (2005–2017) and Extant (2014–2015), while also obtaining supporting roles in independent films. Her early film work included First Sunday (2008), the romantic comedy-drama Expecting (2013), also released as Gus, and the thriller Captive (2015), starring David Oyelowo and Kate Mara. During these years, acting provided only intermittent employment, and Noel supplemented her income with other jobs, including driving for Uber and babysitting. She also encountered difficulties with casting agents who considered her athletic physique too muscular for conventional female roles. She later spoke publicly about being encouraged to change her appearance, particularly the size of her thighs, before deciding to concentrate on characters for whom her physical abilities would be an advantage.

Her breakthrough came with GLOW, created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch and inspired by the real Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling television programme of the 1980s. Set in Los Angeles in 1985, the comedy-drama follows a group of actresses recruited to perform in a women’s professional wrestling show. Noel played Cherry Bang, a former stuntwoman who becomes one of the group’s most experienced performers and helps train the other wrestlers. Cherry initially performs under the name Junkchain before adopting the wrestling persona Black Magic. Noel auditioned in August 2016 and distinguished herself by performing a forward roll and kick that had been included in the audition instructions but attempted by relatively few other candidates. She also improvised during a rap sequence, bringing her own music and throwing dollar bills into the air. After securing the role, she joined the rest of the ensemble for four weeks of intensive wrestling training under professional wrestler Chavo Guerrero Jr. and stunt coordinator Shauna Duggins. The actresses trained at Riverfront Stages in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, learning how to fall, throw opponents and perform wrestling sequences safely. Noel’s athletic background helped her adapt to the demanding routines, although professional wrestling required techniques she had never encountered during her track and field career.

Production of GLOW began in Los Angeles in September 2016, with much of the filming taking place in the San Fernando Valley. The fictional Chavo’s Boxing Gym, where the women train, combined a studio-built interior with exterior filming behind the San Fernando Masonic Lodge on North Maclay Avenue in San Fernando. The Pink Motel on San Fernando Road in Sun Valley represented the Dusty Spur Motel, where the wrestlers live during the first season, while other scenes were filmed at the Hollywood Palladium on Sunset Boulevard. The latter provided the setting for the first season’s wrestling television broadcast, with its historic ballroom transformed for the fictional production. Noel performed her own wrestling sequences, frequently spending several hours repeating physically demanding movements for different camera angles. The role brought her wider recognition when GLOW premiered on Netflix in June 2017, and she subsequently appeared throughout its three seasons alongside Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin, Marc Maron and Kia Stevens, a professional wrestler known as Awesome Kong.

While working on the first season of GLOW, Noel auditioned for Black Panther, directed by Ryan Coogler. She initially met casting director Sarah Finn in Los Angeles, where she was asked to demonstrate an African accent and discuss her athletic abilities. The process subsequently took her to Atlanta, Georgia, for a physical audition involving a fighting staff. Having finished a day’s filming on GLOW, Noel took an overnight flight to Atlanta and spent several hours learning a choreographed routine before performing it for Coogler and the production team. She also demonstrated wrestling and boxing techniques, drawing directly on the skills she had developed for GLOW. Noel was cast as Xoliswa, a member of the Dora Milaje, the all-female royal guard responsible for protecting the rulers of the fictional African nation of Wakanda. Filming began in January 2017, with principal production based at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, now known as Trilith Studios. Noel underwent further weapons and combat training alongside the actresses portraying the other Dora Milaje warriors, including Danai Gurira, who played their commander Okoye. The production also brought her into contact with Angela Bassett, an actress she had admired for many years. Black Panther was released in February 2018 and became one of Marvel Studios’ most commercially successful films, introducing Noel to a substantially larger international audience.

Soon after completing her work on Black Panther, Noel joined the cast of the superhero television series Arrow (2012–2020), portraying FBI Special Agent Samanda Watson. Her character investigates Oliver Queen, played by Stephen Amell, and attempts to establish whether he is secretly operating as the vigilante Green Arrow. The recurring role took Noel to Vancouver, British Columbia, where Arrow was produced, with the Canadian city and its surrounding communities representing the fictional Star City. She appeared across the sixth and seventh seasons between 2017 and 2018, completing a succession of major television and film assignments that had begun with her GLOW audition only a year earlier. During this period, she continued travelling between Los Angeles and filming locations elsewhere in North America, while maintaining her commitment to physical training.

The second and third seasons of GLOW gave Noel opportunities to explore Cherry Bang beyond her original role as the group’s strongest and most experienced wrestler. In the second season, Cherry temporarily leaves the wrestling programme for a role in the fictional television crime series Chambers and Gold, where she encounters problems involving her appearance and the treatment of Black actresses in the entertainment industry. One storyline involves pressure to chemically straighten Cherry’s hair, reflecting experiences Noel herself had encountered while working with hairstylists and make-up departments. She later described the sequence as one of the most personally affecting scenes she had filmed. The third season moves the fictional wrestling show to Las Vegas, but the production remained largely based in Southern California. An elaborate recreation of a 1980s Las Vegas casino was constructed on a Los Angeles sound stage, with additional filming in Ontario, California. GLOW received several Emmy Awards and multiple Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for its ensemble, but its planned fourth and final season was cancelled in 2020 after production was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The cast had already begun work on the season before filming was suspended.

Noel continued developing her career in action films during the same period. She appeared as Hobbs in Daughter of the Wolf (2019), directed by David Hackl and starring Gina Carano and Richard Dreyfuss. Carano, a former mixed martial arts fighter, personally contacted Noel about joining the production because she wanted another performer capable of handling demanding fight choreography. The film was shot in the Okanagan region of British Columbia during March and April 2018, with locations around West Kelowna, Lumby and the former Crystal Mountain ski area providing the remote wilderness settings. The Cove Lakeside Resort on Gellatly Road in West Kelowna was among the properties used during production. Noel and Carano worked closely with the stunt coordinator on their confrontation scenes, incorporating movements they could perform themselves. The experience allowed Noel to use her athletic training in a more conventional action thriller than GLOW or Black Panther, and she subsequently appeared in further independent productions, including the zombie thriller The Clearing (2020), in which she played Naomi, and The Resurrection of Charles Manson (2023).

Noel’s background in professional athletics continued to influence the roles she pursued, and she remained outspoken about the limited opportunities available to physically imposing women in Hollywood. In interviews, she discussed the difference between performing athletic stunts and relying on stunt doubles, arguing that women with suitable training should have more opportunities to demonstrate their physical capabilities on screen. Her experiences also informed her approach to fitness and body image. In an essay published by Women’s Health in August 2018, she described how modelling agents and casting professionals had criticised her muscular legs despite their importance to her success as an athlete. She explained that accepting her natural physique had been an important part of her transition into acting, particularly when securing roles that required strength, endurance and combat skills. Although based professionally in Los Angeles, she also maintained personal connections with South Florida. In a 2017 interview, she recalled visiting the Rustic Inn Crabhouse in Fort Lauderdale since childhood and discussed several businesses she frequented when returning to the region.

During the mid-2020s, Noel returned to her home state for Miami Nights (2025), a crime thriller directed by Justin Steele and filmed on location in Miami. She played Lisa Gardner, a former US Marine who becomes involved in transporting a valuable diamond alongside fellow veteran Mason Lane, portrayed by Jeremy Sumpter. The ensemble also included Terrence Howard, Jeremy Piven, Manu Bennett and Danay Garcia. The production’s South Florida setting brought Noel’s screen career back to the region where she had grown up, although her character’s story concerns the criminal underworld of Miami rather than her own experiences. The film received its world premiere at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival on 21 February 2026, with a screening at Savor Cinema on Southeast Sixth Street in Fort Lauderdale. Noel was among the cast members announced as special guests for the event.

Another major television role followed when Noel joined the fourth season of Reacher, the Amazon Prime Video action series starring Alan Ritchson and adapted from Lee Child’s novels. Released in August 2026, the season draws on the novel Gone Tomorrow and introduces Noel as Tamara Green, a homicide detective with the Philadelphia Police Department who becomes involved in Reacher’s investigation of a dangerous conspiracy. She had previously auditioned for the role of Frances Neagley, eventually played by Maria Sten, before receiving the opportunity to join the series as Green. Production took her to Toronto, Ontario, where she spent approximately five months filming and undertaking extensive stunt work. In preparation, Noel returned to regular running sessions and increased her strength training, while also learning firearms handling and fight choreography. Because she is left-handed, she worked with the production’s instructors to adapt her weapons training accordingly. Her character’s frequent running and physical confrontations drew directly on the skills Noel had developed during her athletics career, more than two decades after she first began training seriously for competition.

By 2026, Noel had established a screen career that included major television ensembles, superhero films, independent action productions and leading supporting roles. Her professional life remained closely connected to Los Angeles, where modelling first opened the door to acting, but her work had taken her from Georgia and the studios of Atlanta to filming assignments in Vancouver, the Okanagan Valley, Toronto and South Florida. Her transition from professional track and field to acting has remained an important aspect of her public career, particularly through the physically demanding characters she has portrayed in GLOW, Black Panther and Reacher.

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