Charlbi Dean, the South African actor and model currently starring on the Triangle of Sadness festival circuit, died Monday of a sudden illness at a New York City hospital at the age of 32, Variety confirmed Tuesday.
The up-and-coming actor had a co-starring role in Triangle of Sadness, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival last May. The satirical dark comedy written and directed by Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund, whose credits include Force Major and The Square, stars Woody Harrelson and Harris Dickinson and opens in US and UK cinemas in October.
Dean played Yaya, one half of a model couple with Dickinson, who are invited on a luxury yacht for the ultra-rich before things go wrong.
The film will also be screened at the Toronto and New York film festivals this year.
Charlbi Dean and Harris Dickinson in Triangle of Sadness Photo: AP
Born and raised in Cape Town as Charlbi Dean Kriek, Dean signed with a modeling agency at the age of 12 and made her screen debut in the 2010 South African film Spud, starring Troye Sivan. She is perhaps best known for playing Syonide, a recurring character on the CW series Black Lightning starting in 2018.
Other film credits include Death Race 3: Inferno, Blood in the Water, Don’t Sleep and Porthole. As a model she has covered magazines such as South African editions of GQ and Elle.
In 2008, she survived a car accident that broke her wrist, four ribs and her elbow and left her with a collapsed lung.
She was engaged to male model Luke Volker, whose most recent Instagram post paid tribute to Dean and his performance in Triangle of Sadness, writing that he “couldn’t be more proud” of her.