Nikki Amuka-Bird

Nikki Amuka-Bird (born 1976) is a Nigerian-born British actress of the stage, television and film.

Early life

Nikki Amuka-Bird was born in Delta, Nigeria, where her father still lives. She left there as a young child with her mother and was brought up in England and in Antigua. Attending boarding school in Britain, Amuka-Bird originally hoped to be a dancer. That ambition was thwarted by injury:

"I hurt my back and at that point was deciding what to do university-wise and I thought I would try for drama college because I knew you could do some dancing there but it didn’t have to take over everything. It was only really when I went to drama college that that world [acting] opened up to me and I fell in love with it and became obsessed like everybody else.”[1]

She went to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and subsequently performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).

Career

Amuka-Bird's theatrical credits include Welcome to Thebes (National Theatre); Twelfth Night (Bristol Old Vic, for which she won an Ian Charleson Award nomination in 2004 for playing Viola);[1] World Music (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, and Donmar Warehouse); Top Girls (Oxford Stage Company); A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest and The Servant of Two Masters (RSC); Doubt: A Parable (Tricycle Theatre).

Her film credits include The Omen (2006 remake), Cargo, Almost Heaven as well as the screen adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's novel The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.[2] On television, Amuka-Bird has appeared in Spooks, The Line of Beauty, The Last Enemy, Robin Hood, Torchwood, and a recurring role in the reimagined BBC apocalyptic series Survivors. In 2010 she appeared as Det. Supt Gaynor Jenkins in the BBC's Silent Witness.

She appeared in Small Island, the BBC adaptation of Andrea Levy's award-winning novel, broadcast in December 2009.[3] In June 2016 it was announced that she and Phoebe Fox would star in the production of Zadie Smith's novel NW.[4] It was broadcast on BBC2 on 14 November 2016[5][6] and Amuka-Bird received a BAFTA for Best Actress.

On Christmas Day 2017 she was heard as the voice of the Glass Woman in the Doctor Who Christmas Special "Twice Upon a Time" broadcast on BBC1 and around the world.

Personal life

In 2003, Amuka-Bird married actor Geoffrey Streatfeild, whom she met while touring with the RSC in Japan. The marriage lasted seven years. [7]

Filmography

Film and television credits
Title Year Role Notes
The Bill 1999 Doreen West 1 episode
Grafters 1999 Martha TV mini-series
Forgive and Forget 2000 Nicky
Safe as Houses 2000 Carole TV movie
Doctors 2000 Nurse 1 episode
Canterbury Tales 2003 Constance Musa 1 episode
Bad Girls 2003–2004 Paula Miles 8 episodes
Murder Prevention 2004 Gemma 1 episode
Almost Heaven 2005 Rosie
Afterlife 2005 Sandra Petch 1 episode
Casualty 2005 Moji Muzenda 1 episode
Holby City 1999–2005 various 3 episodes
Casualty @ Holby City 2005 Moji Muzenda 3 episodes
Silent Witness 2005–2010 Det Supt Gaynor Jenkins, SImone Campbell BBC One TV series
Cargo 2006 Subira
The True Voice of Prostitution 2006 TV movie
Shoot the Messenger 2006 Heather Notes
The Line of Beauty 2006 Rosemary Charles 2 episodes
The Omen 2006 Dr. Becker
Spooks 2006 Michelle Lopez 1 episode
Robin Hood 2006 Abbess 1 episode
Born Equal 2006 Itshe Notes
Five Days 2007 PC Simone Farnes TV mini-series
The Whistleblowers 2007 Helen Errol 1 episode
Torchwood 2008 Beth Halloran / Sleeper Agent 1 episode
The Last Enemy 2008 Susan Ross TV mini-series
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency 2008 Alice Busang Notes
Survivors 2008–2010 Samantha Willis MP Notes
BBC One TV series
The Disappeared 2008 Shelley Cartwright
Small Island 2009 Celia BBC One
Coriolanus 2011 TV Pundit
Luther 2011–2013 Det. Sgt / Det. Chief Inspector Erin Gray (Series 2, Series 3) BBC One TV series
Sinbad 2012 The Professor Sky 1 TV series
Episode: "For Whom the Egg Shatters"
House of Fools 2014 Fiona 1 episode
The Face of an Angel 2014 Roxanne
Death in Paradise 2014 Anna Jackson 1 episode
Lovesick 2014 Anna Channel 4 series
Jupiter Ascending 2015 Diomika Tsing
Inside No. 9 2015 Joanne Series 2, episode 4, "Cold Comfort"
Denial 2016 Libby Holbrook
NW 2016 Natalie BBC 2
The Children Act 2017 Amadia Kalu QC
Doctor Who 2017 The Testimony (voice) / Helen Clay 1 episode “Twice Upon a Time”
Hard Sun 2018 Grace Morrigan Main character, 6 episodes
Gold Digger 2019 Marsha Upcoming miniseries
The Personal History of David Copperfield TBA Mrs. Steerforth Post-production

References

  1. 1 2 Caroline Bishop, "Nikki Amuka-Bird", OfficialLondonTheatre.com, 30 June 2010.
  2. ↑ "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Nikki Amuka Bird plays Alice Busang", BBC Press Office.
  3. ↑ Alex Flatcher, "BBC One to adapt Levy's 'Small Island'", Digital Spy, 23 October 2008.
  4. ↑ Natasha Onwuemezi, "Amuka-Bird and Fox to star in NW adaptation", The Bookseller, 10 June 2016.
  5. ↑ Tom Meltzer, "NW star Nikki Amuka-Bird: 'Zadie is purposefully challenging the viewer'", The Guardian, 14 November 2016.
  6. ↑ Adrian Lobb, "NW Star Nikki Amuka-Bird Interview: 'Bursting through the glass ceiling can cause damage'", The Big Issue, 21 November 2016.
  7. ↑ standard.co October 2017 kwame kwei armah
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