Michaela Coel

Michaela Coel
Born Michaela Ewuraba O Boakye-Collinson
(1987-10-01) 1 October 1987
Aldgate, London, England
Residence East London, England
Alma mater Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Occupation
  • Actress
  • screenwriter
  • poet
  • playwright
Years active 2013–present

Michaela-Moses Ewuraba O Boakye-Collinson (born 1 October 1987), known professionally as Michaela Coel, is a British actress, screenwriter, singer, songwriter, poet, and playwright.[1] In 2016, she won the BAFTA for Best Female Performance in a Comedy Programme and Breakthrough Talent for the television series Chewing Gum, which she created and writes while portraying the lead role.[2][3]

Early life

Michaela Coel was born Michaela-Moses Ewuraba O Boakye-Collinson[4][5][6] on 1 October 1987 in Aldgate, London,[4] the daughter of Ghanaian immigrants. She and her sister grew up in London, primarily Hackney and Tower Hamlets, with her mother, a mental health liaison officer.[7] Coel's father lives in Ghana, and she has a half-brother.[8] She has stated that while at her all-girls Catholic school in East London,[9] she was the only black female pupil in her year that acted differently from most, and dealt with her isolation by physically bullying others.[5]

From 2007 to 2009, Coel attended Birmingham University to study English Literature and Theology.[10] She took a Ché Walker masterclass at RADA after meeting Walker at open mics. In 2009, she transferred to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she was the first black woman enrolled in five years.[11] She won the Laurence Olivier Bursary award, which helped her fund her schooling.[12] During her time at Guildhall, she attended the Mark Proulx workshop at Prima del Teatro and took the Kat Francois Poetry Course at the Theatre Royal Stratford East.[10] She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2012.[13]

Career

In 2006, Coel began performing in poetry open mics in Ealing.[14] As she continued to do open mics, she was encouraged by the actor, playwright, and director Ché Walker, who saw her perform at Hackney Empire, to apply to Guildhall.[5][11] As a poet she has performed on stages including Wembley Arena, Bush Theatre, Nuyorican, and Rotterdam De Doelen Concert Hall. She went by the name, Michaela The Poet.[6]

In 2009, Coel joined the Talawa Theatre Company summer school program called TYPT.[15][16] During her time at Talawa she was in the TYPT 2009 production of Krunch, directed by Amani Naphtali.[17]

In 2009, Coel released an album entitled Fixing Barbie, which featured her work as a poet and musician.[18] In 2011, Coel released the record "We're the Losers".[19]

In 2012, Coel's play, Chewing Gum Dreams, was her senior / graduation project at Guildhall. It was first produced at The Yard Theatre in Hackney Wick in 2012.[20] The play featured Coel in a one-woman show telling the dramatic story of a 14-year-old girl named Tracey.[11] The play then went on to be produced by the Bush Theatre (2012), Royal Theatre Holland (2012), Royal Exchange Theatre (2013), and the National Theatre (2014).[1] It received positive reviews.[21][22]

Coel appeared in the Channel 4 drama Top Boy and had leading roles at the National Theatre, including the award-nominated Home and the critically acclaimed Medea at the Olivier Theatre.[23]

In August 2014, Channel 4 announced that Coel was to star in and write a new sitcom called Chewing Gum, inspired by her play Chewing Gum Dreams.[8][24][25] "C4 Comedy Blaps" were released as teasers in September 2014, and the series began on E4 in October 2015.[5] Her performance earned her the British Academy Television Award for Best Female Comedy Performance in 2016; she also won a BAFTA for Breakthrough Talent for writing the show.[26] Chewing Gum received overwhelmingly positive reviews.[27]

In 2015, Coel also guest-starred in the BBC One drama London Spy.[28]

In 2016, she starred in the E4 sci-fi comedy-drama The Aliens, which was shot in Bulgaria.[29][30] She portrays the character, Lilyhot.[31]

Chewing Gum returned for a second season in January 2017.[9][32]

She also appeared in the "Nosedive" and "USS Callister" episodes of Charlie Brooker's series Black Mirror.[32][33]

She also has a small role in the 2017 film Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Personal life

For the 2016 BAFTA Awards, Coel wore a dress made out of Kente cloth which was made by her mother.[34] She has said that, like her Chewing Gum character Tracey (who is 24 in season 1), she became very religious in the Pentecostal faith, and embraced celibacy.[11] Although she still considers herself a Christian, Coel stopped practising Pentecostalism after attending Guildhall.[5]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
2014 Monsters: Dark Continent Kelly
2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi Resistance Monitor
2018 Been So Long Simone

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
2013Top BoyKayla2 episodes
2013Law & Order: UKMaidEpisode: "Paternal"
2015London SpyJournalistEpisode: "Strangers"
2015–2017Chewing GumTracey12 episodes
2016The AliensLilyhot6 episodes
2016, 2017Black MirrorAirline Stewardess, Shania Lowry2 episodes: "Nosedive" and "USS Callister"
2018Black Earth RisingKate AshbyMiniseries

Stage

YearTitleRoleVenue
2013Three BirdsTianaBush Theatre
2013Home[23]Portugal/Young MumRoyal National Theatre
2013Chewing Gum DreamsTracey GordonRoyal Exchange Theatre
2014Blurred Lines[35]Royal National Theatre
2014Home (Revival)Young Mum/PortugalRoyal National Theatre
2014Chewing Gum DreamsTracey GordonRoyal National Theatre
2014Medea[9]NurseRoyal National Theatre

Discography

EP

LPs

  • Fixing Barbie (2009)[36]
  • We're the Losers (2011)[6]

Awards and nominations

Works and publications

  • Coel, Michaela (2013). Chewing Gum Dreams (UK ed.). London: Oberon Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-783-19014-0. OCLC 870600609.

References

  1. 1 2 Geoghegan, Kev (25 March 2014). "Michaela Coel: A rising star at the National Theatre". BBC News.
  2. 1 2 "Michaela Coel's Inspiring Acceptance Speech" (Video). BAFTA TV Awards 2016. 8 May 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Female Performance in a Comedy Programme". BAFTA TV Awards 2016. 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Michaela Ewuraba O Collinson – England and Wales Birth Registration Index". FamilySearch. 1987.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Hattenstone, Simon (4 October 2015). "Filthy, funny and Christian: the many sides of Chewing Gum's Michaela Coel". The Guardian.
  6. 1 2 3 M-Brio Music (6 September 2011). "Michaela 2.0? The Re-Branding of Michaela The Poet". M-Brio Music.
  7. ↑ Tsjeng, Zing (12 January 2017). "Netflix's Rising Star Michaela Coel on Swapping God for Filthy Jokes" (includes video). Broadly.
  8. 1 2 Buxton, Adam (24 September 2016). "Podcast Ep. 30 – Michaela Coel" (Podcast). Adam-Buxton.co.uk.
  9. 1 2 3 Brown, Emma (19 December 2016). "The Showrunner". Interview.
  10. 1 2 "Michaela Coel". Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Tate, Gabriel (18 September 2015). "Meet Michaela Coel, the rising star behind E4's Chewing Gum". London Evening Standard.
  12. ↑ Marshall, Charlotte (21 July 2014). "Introducing... Michaela Coel". Official London Theatre.
  13. ↑ "Michaela Coel (2012)". Guildhall School of Music and Drama. 2012.
  14. ↑ Ross, Jonathan (26 February 2016). "Spoken Word star Michaela Coel performs a poem for Jonathan" (Radio interview). The Radio 2 Arts Show with Jonathan Ross, BBC Radio 2.
  15. ↑ "TYPT". Talawa Theatre Company. Archived from the original on 6 April 2016.
  16. ↑ "Michaela Coel 'Chewing Gum'". Talawa Theatre Company.
  17. ↑ "Krunch TYPT:09". Talawa Theatre Company. 2009. As Michaela-Moses Boakye-Collinson
  18. ↑ Flavourmag Team (7 December 2009). "Michaela: The Birth of a Poet – 'Fixing Barbie' album". Flavourmag.
  19. ↑ Coel, Michaela (2 August 2011). "Introducing Michaela Coel (HD)" (Video EPK).
  20. ↑ "Chewing Gum Dreams" (Video). Yard Theatre. 1 September 2013.
  21. ↑ Costa, Maddy (19 March 2014). "Chewing Gum Dreams review: An effervescent look at adolescence". The Guardian.
  22. ↑ "Chewing Gum Dreams, National's Shed – theatre review". London Evening Standard. 20 March 2014.
  23. 1 2 Khan, Naima (21 August 2013). "Homebody: An interview with Michaela Coel". Plays, Films & Plays.
  24. ↑ "Interview with Michaela Coel". Channel 4. 16 September 2015.
  25. ↑ Dowell, Ben (6 October 2015). "Chewing Gum writer Michaela Coel talks race, class, comedy sex…and more sex". Radio Times.
  26. ↑ Bryant, Taylor (28 November 2016). "Michaela Coel on Her Brilliant Show 'Chewing Gum' · NYLON". Nylon.
  27. ↑ Kang, Inkoo (23 November 2016). "'Chewing Gum' Is A Late Bloomer's Hilarious Quest For Sexual Experience". MTV News.
  28. ↑ "Bursting with flavour, E4 announces tasty new comedy series for 2015" (Press release). Channel 4. 21 August 2014.
  29. ↑ Dowell, Ben (1 March 2016). "Chewing Gum star Michaela Coel experienced 'racist attack' while filming The Aliens in Bulgaria". Radio Times.
  30. ↑ Gilbert, Gerard (26 February 2016). "Michaela Coel on Chewing Gum, rude sex, Jeremy Corbyn". The Independent.
  31. ↑ British Comedy Guide (7 March 2016). "Michaela Coel interview – The Aliens". British Comedy Guide.
  32. 1 2 Adewunmi, Bim (7 May 2016). "Why I love… Michaela Coel". The Guardian.
  33. ↑ Doran, Sarah (22 April 2016). "Michaela Coel says Black Mirror role is "the most amazing part I've ever played"". Radio Times.
  34. ↑ "#MakingGhanaProud – Michaela Coel wins second BAFTA". Live 91.9 FM. 9 May 2016.
  35. ↑ "Blurred Lines (The Shed, Royal National Theatre)". Michaela The Poet. 16 January 2014.
  36. 1 2 "About". Michaela The Poet. 6 November 2009.
  37. ↑ "2012 Award". Alfred Fagon Award.
  38. ↑ "Television Craft Breakthrough Talent in 2016". BAFTA TV Awards. 2016.
  39. 1 2 Gove, Ed (22 March 2016). "Royal Television Society announces Programme Awards winners". Royal Television Society.
  40. 1 2 "RTS Programme Awards 2016". Royal Television Society. 2016.


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