Wunmi Mosaku
Encyclopedia
Wunmi Mosaku is a British actress of Nigerian origin, best known for her role as Joy in the 2009
BBC Two
miniseries Moses Jones
.
, Nigeria
and subsequently emigrated to Manchester
, England
where she attended Trinity Church of England High School and Xaverian Sixth Form College. She also sang for eleven years in the Manchester Girls Choir.
in 2007 and made her stage debut at the Arcola Theatre
in a production of Pedro Calderón de la Barca
's The Great Theatre of the World. Since then she has also appeared in Rough Crossings
, directed by Rupert Goold
and based on the book by Simon Schama
, at the Lyric Hammersmith
; The Vertical Hour
by David Hare
at the Royal Court Theatre
and Mules at the Young Vic. In 2009 she appeared in Katrina a verbatim play which told 6 people's stories of their struggles of survival when Hurricane Katrina
devastated New Orleans August 2005. Wunmi was originally cast as Sophie in the UK premier of Ruined
by Lynn Nottage
at the Almeida Theatre
but unfortunately had to pull out due to an injury.
In 2008, she appeared in the first of the UNDEREXPOSED exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery designed to raise the profile of black role models and celebrates the talent that exists among the Black British community. Her photo also appeared on Commercial Way, Peckham, London as part of the exhibition.
She is featured on the front cover of Screen International magazine June–July 2009 as one of the UK Stars of Tomorrow. And in 2011 she was featured in Nylon Magazines 2011 Young Hollywood issue.
In 2010 Wunmi was named one of The Seven Fresh Faces of Toronto International Film Festival, for I Am Slave
, in which she starred. She plays Malia, a girl who has been kidnapped from her village in Sudan
, and sold into slavery.
2009 in British television
This is a list of events taking place in 2009 related to British television.-Events:-BBC:-ITV:-Channel 4:-Five:-Subscription Channels:-New channels:-Defunct channels:-Rebranding channels:-Changes of network affiliation:...
BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
miniseries Moses Jones
Moses Jones
Moses Jones is a three-part BBC Television drama series written by Joe Penhall, directed by Michael Offer and produced by Cameron Roach that was first broadcast on BBC Two in February 2009.-Synopsis:...
.
Early Life
Mosaku was born in ZariaZaria
Zaria may refer to:*Zaria, a city in Kaduna State, Nigeria*Zaria , or Zoria, the Slavic goddess of beauty*Countess Zaria of Orange-Nassau, Jonkvrouwe van Amsberg, a member of the Dutch royal family...
, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
and subsequently emigrated to Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
where she attended Trinity Church of England High School and Xaverian Sixth Form College. She also sang for eleven years in the Manchester Girls Choir.
2007 to Present
Mosaku graduated from RADARada
Rada is the term for "council" or "assembly"borrowed by Polish from the Low Franconian "Rad" and later passed into the Czech, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages....
in 2007 and made her stage debut at the Arcola Theatre
Arcola Theatre
Arcola Theatre is a studio theatre in Dalston, in the London Borough of Hackney. The theatre's ambition is to create and present high-quality theatre with a social and political relevance to its multicultural local community as well as a wider audience....
in a production of Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño usually referred as Pedro Calderón de la Barca , was a dramatist, poet and writer of the Spanish Golden Age. During certain periods of his life he was also a soldier and a Roman Catholic priest...
's The Great Theatre of the World. Since then she has also appeared in Rough Crossings
Rough Crossings
Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution is a history book and television series by Simon Schama.This gives an account of the history of thousands of enslaved African Americans who escaped to the British cause during the American War of Independence...
, directed by Rupert Goold
Rupert Goold
Rupert Goold is an English theatre director. He is the artistic director of Headlong Theatre and from 2010 he will be an associate director at the Royal Shakespeare Company.- Early years :...
and based on the book by Simon Schama
Simon Schama
Simon Michael Schama, CBE is a British historian and art historian. He is a University Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University. He is best known for writing and hosting the 15-part BBC documentary series A History of Britain...
, at the Lyric Hammersmith
Lyric Hammersmith
The Lyric Theatre, also known as the Lyric Hammersmith, is a theatre on King Street, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, which takes pride in its original, "groundbreaking" productions....
; The Vertical Hour
The Vertical Hour
The Vertical Hour is a play by David Hare. The play addresses the relationship of characters with opposing views on the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and also explores psychological tension between public lives and private lives. The play received its world premiere at the Music Box Theater on Broadway,...
by David Hare
David Hare (dramatist)
Sir David Hare is an English playwright and theatre and film director.-Early life:Hare was born in St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings, East Sussex, the son of Agnes and Clifford Hare, a sailor. He was educated at Lancing, an independent school in West Sussex, and at Jesus College, Cambridge...
at the Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
and Mules at the Young Vic. In 2009 she appeared in Katrina a verbatim play which told 6 people's stories of their struggles of survival when Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
devastated New Orleans August 2005. Wunmi was originally cast as Sophie in the UK premier of Ruined
Ruined (play)
Ruined is a play by Lynn Nottage. The play won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.The play involves the plight of women in the civil war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo.-Production history:...
by Lynn Nottage
Lynn Nottage
Lynn Nottage is an American playwright whose work often deals with the lives of women of African descent, African Americans and women. She was born in Brooklyn and is a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005, and a MacArthur Genius...
at the Almeida Theatre
Almeida Theatre
The Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325 seat studio theatre with an international reputation which takes its name from the street in which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diverse range of drama and holds an annual summer festival of...
but unfortunately had to pull out due to an injury.
In 2008, she appeared in the first of the UNDEREXPOSED exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery designed to raise the profile of black role models and celebrates the talent that exists among the Black British community. Her photo also appeared on Commercial Way, Peckham, London as part of the exhibition.
She is featured on the front cover of Screen International magazine June–July 2009 as one of the UK Stars of Tomorrow. And in 2011 she was featured in Nylon Magazines 2011 Young Hollywood issue.
In 2010 Wunmi was named one of The Seven Fresh Faces of Toronto International Film Festival, for I Am Slave
I Am Slave
I Am Slave is a 2010 television film produced for Channel 4 on the story of one woman's fight for freedom from modern-day slavery. It premiered on Channel 4 on 30 August 2010...
, in which she starred. She plays Malia, a girl who has been kidnapped from her village in Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, and sold into slavery.
Television
| Year | Show | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | *Sold Sold (TV series) Sold is a British comedy drama television series produced by Touchpaper Television for ITV. The series stars Kris Marshall and Bryan Dick as Matt and Danny, employees of Colubrines Estate Agents. It is written by Steve Coombes and was broadcast between 15 November and 20 December 2007.- Characters... : Episode #1.5 |
Female Firefighter | ITV ITV ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK... |
| 2008 | Never Better Never Better Never Better is a British television sitcom which started on BBC Two on 10 January 2008. It stars Stephen Mangan as recovering alcoholic Keith Merchant and Kate Ashfield as his suffering wife Anita... : "First Week Euphoria" |
Female Server | BBC Two BBC Two BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio... |
| 2008 | Doctors: "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding?" | Nurse Kelly Strathairn | BBC One BBC One BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution... |
| 2008 | The Bill The Bill The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work... : "Trial and Error: Part 1" |
Sophie Oduya | ITV ITV ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK... |
| 2009 | Moses Jones Moses Jones Moses Jones is a three-part BBC Television drama series written by Joe Penhall, directed by Michael Offer and produced by Cameron Roach that was first broadcast on BBC Two in February 2009.-Synopsis:... |
Joy | BBC Two BBC Two BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio... |
| 2010 | Silent Witness Silent Witness Silent Witness is a BBC crime thriller series focusing on a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations into various crimes. First broadcast in February 1996, the series is still airing to the present day, with a fifteenth series expected to air in January 2012. The series was... |
Charlie Gibbs | BBC One BBC One BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution... |
| 2010 | One Night in Emergency | Beautiful Nurse | BBC Scotland BBC Scotland BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who... television film |
| 2010 | Father & Son Father & Son (TV serial) Father & Son is a four-part television crime thriller produced by Left Bank Pictures and Octagon Films for the British ITV network and the Irish broadcaster RTÉ. Written by Frank Deasy, the serial depicts the return of Michael O'Connor to his native Ireland, after spending several years imprisoned... |
Stacey Cox | RTÉ One RTÉ One RTÉ One is the flagship television channel of Raidió Teilifís Éireann , and it is the most popular and most watched television channel in Ireland. It was launched as Telefís Éireann on 31 December 1961, it was renamed RTÉ Television in 1966, and it was renamed as RTÉ One upon the launch of RTÉ... , ITV ITV ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK... |
| 2010 | Law & Order: UK | Tamika Vincent | ITV ITV ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK... |
| 2011 | Vera Vera (TV series) Vera is a British detective television series based on the works of crime author Ann Cleeves. It stars Brenda Blethyn and is broadcast on ITV1.-Summary:... |
Holly Lawson | ITV ITV ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK... |
| 2011 | 32 Brinkburn Street | Joy | BBC One BBC One BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution... |
| 2011 | The Body Farm The Body Farm (TV series) The Body Farm is a British police procedural crime drama series for the BBC network, featuring a fictional private forensic pathology facility that conducts scientific research to help solve crimes, lead by Dr... |
Rosa Gilbert | BBC One BBC One BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution... |
Film
| Year | Film | Role | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | The Women of Troy | Helen of Troy | Phil Hawkins Phil Hawkins Phil Hawkins is an award-winning commercials, television and independent film director from Manchester, United Kingdom. His work in feature film includes "The Women Of Troy" and Philip Pullman's The Butterfly Tattoo... |
| 2010 | Honeymooner Honeymooner Honeymooner is a 2010 British independent film. The film was directed by Col Spector and filmed in North London, England and nationally released on 20th January 2011.-Plot:... |
Seema | Col Spector |
| 2010 | Womb Womb (film) Womb is a 2010 film written and directed by Benedek Fliegauf and starring Eva Green and Matt Smith.-Plot:The film commences with a pregnant woman telling her unborn child that the father has departed for good, but that together they will start a new life. A love story is then told between two... |
Erica | Benedek Fliegauf Benedek Fliegauf Benedek Fliegauf , is a Hungarian film director. As founder of the 'Raptors collective', he is also involved in sound design and set design. Living in Budapest he is a leading figure of the new generation of Hungarian filmmakers... |
| 2010 | I Am Slave I Am Slave I Am Slave is a 2010 television film produced for Channel 4 on the story of one woman's fight for freedom from modern-day slavery. It premiered on Channel 4 on 30 August 2010... |
Malia | Gabriel Range Gabriel Range Gabriel Range is a British filmmaker, who is probably best known for his fictional political-documentary about the assassination of George W. Bush in Death of a President... |
| 2011 | Stolen | Sonia Carney | Justin Chadwick Justin Chadwick Justin Chadwick is an English actor and television and film director.Chadwick began acting at the age of eleven. He graduated from the University of Leicester and in 1991 made his screen debut in London Kills Me... |
| 2011 | Citadel Citadel A citadel is a fortress for protecting a town, sometimes incorporating a castle. The term derives from the same Latin root as the word "city", civis, meaning citizen.... |
Marie | Ciaran Foy |
Radio
- Drama on 3: The Vertical HourThe Vertical HourThe Vertical Hour is a play by David Hare. The play addresses the relationship of characters with opposing views on the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and also explores psychological tension between public lives and private lives. The play received its world premiere at the Music Box Theater on Broadway,...
(2008), on BBC Radio 3BBC Radio 3BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
, as Terri Scholes - Drama on 4 Normal and Nat (20092009 in radioThe following events occurred in radio in 2009.- Events :* January 1: Kurdish TV starts broadcasting in Turkey.* January: Michael Smerconish, morning host at talk radio WPHT Philadelphia, begins syndication of his morning show to WHFS in Washington and WOR in New York City.* January 17: Two well...
) on BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
as Shanice - Drama on 4 Amazing GraceAmazing Grace"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn with words written by the English poet and clergyman John Newton , published in 1779. With a message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of the sins people commit and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God,...
(20102010 in radioThe following events occurred in radio in 2010.-Events:*Date Unknown: CHOI/Quebec City flips from Alternative Rock to News/Talk.*January 4: KJCS/Lufkin, Texas goes silent....
) on BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
as Grace
External links
- Wunmi Mosaku at RADARadaRada is the term for "council" or "assembly"borrowed by Polish from the Low Franconian "Rad" and later passed into the Czech, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages....
- Wunmi Mosaku at tv.comTV.comTV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...