Michaela Coel

Michaela Ewuraba Boakye-Collinson, professionally known as Michaela Coel, was born on October 1, 1987, in London, England, to Ghanaian parents. She was raised in Tower Hamlets by her mother, a devout Pentecostal Christian, which influenced her early life and work. Coel initially pursued creative expression through poetry and performance art, releasing the album ‘Fixing Barbie’ in 2009. She earned a 2.1 in English at university before attending the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she was awarded the Laurence Olivier bursary and graduated in 2012. Her early career saw her performing at poetry open mics, including at venues like Wembley Arena and the Hackney Empire, under the name Michaela The Poet. She also joined the Talawa Theatre Company’s summer school program TYPT in 2009, appearing in their production of ‘Krunch’.

Coel’s play ‘Chewing Gum Dreams’, a one-woman show detailing the experiences of a 14-year-old girl, originated as her senior graduation project at Guildhall in 2012. It was produced at The Yard Theatre, Bush Theatre, Royal Theatre Holland, Royal Exchange Theatre, and eventually transferred to the National Theatre in 2014. This play was later adapted into the successful Channel 4 sitcom ‘Chewing Gum’, which premiered in 2015. She wrote, created, and starred in the series, winning a BAFTA Award for Best Female Comedy Performance and a BAFTA for Breakthrough Talent for writing the show in 2016. The series ran for two seasons until 2017. During this period, Coel also appeared in the BBC One drama ‘London Spy’ (2015), the E4 sci-fi comedy-drama ‘The Aliens’ (2016) as Lilyhot, and in two episodes of Charlie Brooker’s ‘Black Mirror’ (‘Nosedive’ in 2016 and ‘USS Callister’ in 2017).

In 2018, Coel starred in ‘Black Earth Rising’, a co-production between BBC Two and Netflix, and in the musical-drama film ‘Been So Long’. Her critically acclaimed breakthrough came with the HBO and BBC One comedy-drama series ‘I May Destroy You’ (2020), which she created, wrote, produced, co-directed, and starred in. This series, inspired by her personal experience of sexual assault, received widespread acclaim and earned her a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special, making her the first Black woman to win this award. She also won a British Academy Television Award for Best Actress in 2021 for her role. Post ‘I May Destroy You’, Coel continued to gain recognition, starring as Aneka in Marvel’s ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ (2022) and in an episode of Donald Glover’s ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ (2024). Her upcoming projects include starring in David Lowery’s ‘Mother Mary’ and writing, starring in, and executive producing her new 10-part BBC series, ‘First Day on Earth’, scheduled to begin filming in 2025. Coel was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2022.