Gugu Mbatha-Raw has joined Kevin Hart in the cast of the Netflix film 'Lift'.

The 38-year-old actress is set to play the female lead in the action thriller that is being directed by F. Gary Gray.

Vincent D'Onofrio, Billy Magnussen, Ursula Corbero, Yun Jee Kim, Viveik Kalra and Paul Anderson are rounding out the cast of the project.

Netflix acquired the rights to the film last year with Dan Kunka penning the script. Gugu saw off competition from a number of stars for the role that was one of the more coveted parts for young female performers.

The flick will see Hart play a master thief who is wooed by his former girlfriend and the FBI to pull off an impossible heist with his international crew on a plane flying from London to Zurich.

The movie is being produced by Simon Kinberg and Audrey Chon for Genre Pictures, Matt Reeves and Adam Kassan for 6th and Idaho, and Hart and Brian Smiley for HartBeat Productions.

Gray, Brent O'Connor and Patricia Braga are all executive producing the film.

'Lift' forms part of Hart and HartBeat Productions' creative partnership with the streaming giant. The companies are also working on the movie 'Me Time', a comedy starring Mark Wahlberg and Regina Hall.

Meanwhile, Gugu is set to star in 'Nobody's Heart' alongside Edgar Ramirez.

'Nobody's Heart' is set in Lisbon during the 1930s and centres on a new widow, Lily, who inherits her husband's cork factory.

She begins to form an unexpected relationship with her enigmatic co-worker, igniting repressed imagination and passion and discovering unknown truths about both herself and her late husband.

The film is adapted from the bestselling author and screenwriter William Boyd's short story 'Cork' and is based on the life of the celebrated Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa.