LOS ANGELES _ The fog clears, the music intensifies and Sadiqua Bynum gets to work. Wearing a black, hooded trench coat, she fires a single shot from a gun in her right hand before leaping onto the bed of a pickup truck, where an armed masked man awaits. When he tries to escape, she chases him into a bunkhouse, her gun drawn.
This is Bynum's superhero moment, even though you can't see her face as she cartwheels through the air and throws her nemesis to the ground. The gun is fake and the villain is an actor, but the action is real.
After a decorated gymnastics career at UCLA, Bynum, a three-time All-American, has jumped into the Hollywood stunt world and works as a double for Regina King in HBO's "Watchmen." The 26-year-old is one of the youngest and most successful black stuntwomen in an industry that is just beginning to experience the trickle-down effect of efforts to increase diversity in all of Hollywood.
Being a stuntwoman, she says, is the perfect job. "I'm constantly thinking that I have the ability ... to bring a different element to film and bring the skills that I have and make them bigger."
In "Watchmen," King portrays Angela Abar, a Tulsa, Okla., cop whose alter ego is Sister Night, a masked vigilante. She makes a show of retiring from police work to open a bakery but remains active on the force and in her secret identity. Sister Night wears a black cloak, covers her mouth with a mask and obscures her eyes with black spray paint as she assists the local police force. She's a human who excels at combat.
Although the TV show, which airs its season finale Dec. 15, is inspired by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' 1986-87 comic book series, the Sister Night character was created specifically for the HBO series. Bynum's cartwheels and kicks help Angela Abar transcend her civilian persona: a mother of three trying to open a bakery.
Bynum, who graduated in 2016, has a stunt resume that includes appearances in "American Horror Story," and the movies "Black Panther" and "Rampage." But "Watchmen," HBO's most watched new series since "Big Little Lies," has been a game changer.
After "Watchmen" wrapped, she landed a small role in "Richard Jewell," the Clint Eastwood-directed drama, scheduled for release Dec. 13, about the security guard accused of setting off a bomb at the 1996 Olympics. In the film, which was shot in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park, where the original bombing took place, Bynum portrays one of the people standing closest to the explosive device.
Thom Williams, who worked on both projects, knew he wanted to work with her again after seeing her work in "Watchmen."
One of two stunt coordinators on the "Watchmen" pilot, Williams "discovered" Bynum when he came across a short highlight reel of her performing parkour-type stunts. He was dazzled by her ability to leapfrog over mats and transition smoothly into seemingly effortless flips. She combined power with grace and had an athletic build that would match King's.
Bynum, Williams said, was perfect for Sister Night.
"A lot of times when you're watching women's gymnastics, it's so beautiful and graceful, and Sadiqua had that," said Williams, who worked with veteran stunt coordinator Doug Coleman on the pilot. "But she also had this insane power behind it."
At UCLA, Bynum started as a walk-on. As a fifth-year senior, she ranked in the top eight nationally in floor exercise at the end of the regular season, earning her first-team All-American honors.
Her winning routine began with a double backflip with her body straight before landing on the mat with a glowing smile. Though gymnasts typically tumble from corner to corner, later in the routine Bynum executed a double tuck pass (two backflips with her knees to her chest) down the side of the mat, a much shorter distance. She generated the necessary power from just a single step.
That same power is evident in each episode of "Watchmen." Justin Riemer, the stunt coordinator who took over after the pilot, points to the way Bynum runs on the set _ as if she's starting a tumbling pass or bounding down the vault runway.
