Digital Spy Rising: Where you can see our 30 Black British stars of tomorrow
Last year we published Digital Spy Rising: 30 Black British stars of tomorrow on our digital magazine edition over at Apple News+, announcing the young Black actors working in the UK who we think have glittering futures.
At Digital Spy, we don't just give our award winners a biscuit, a glass of orange squash and chuck them out on the pavement – we have a full after-care programme for all our deserving stars.
In that spirit, let's take a look at where we can see some of our Digital Spy Rising stars this year. You'll notice that many of the stars are writers as well as performers – reinforcing the notion that it's not enough to be good, especially for Black actors: as the likes of trailblazers like Michaela Coel have demonstrated, you have to create the work if you want to find the work.
Micheal Ward
Micheal will return in season four of Top Boy on Netflix, where he drew universal acclaim for his incendiary performance as Jamie, the ruthless leader of the London Fields crew who just wants to do right by his family.
David Jonsson
High-finance drama Industry has been commissioned for a second season, so hopefully we'll see a lot more of David's frighteningly bright investment banker Gus.
Abubakar Salim
You can see Abubakar now in HBO/Sky Atlantic's interstellar sci-fi Raised By Wolves – and he's also the founder of independent game developers Silver Rain Games.
Patricia Allison
Sex Education will be back this year (see also Ncuti Gatwa and Kedar Williams-Stirling below) and with it Patricia as the immaculately tailored pansexual Ola.
Sheila Atim
You can see Sheila soon in Netflix's The Irregulars, a supernatural take on Sherlock Holmes' gang of street urchins.
Weruche Opia
Weruche impressed us deeply as Terry in I May Destroy You last year – you can see more of her this year when Sliced, the sitcom about a low-rent pizza joint, returns to Dave in 2021.
Paapa Essiedu
Channel 5 is boldly following in Netflix's Bridgerton footsteps by casting Black actors prominently in a period piece in their upcoming Tudor "psychological drama", Anne Boleyn. Paapa will play Anne's brother George.
Ncuti Gatwa
The breakout star of Sex Education will return (hopefully in 2021) in season three, but you can also catch him alongside Felicity Jones and Shailene Woodley in The Last Letter from Your Lover, an adaptation of Jojo Moyes' romantic novel.
Olive Gray
We've been promised a TV series based on Halo for a long time, and it looks like 2021 is when it's finally arriving: Olive plays Dr Miranda Keyes, who gamers will recognise as Commander Keyes.
Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù
Following his amazing, intense turns in His House and Gangs of London last year, Ṣọpẹ́ will star alongside the likes of Olivia Colman and Colin Firth in inter-war period drama Mothering Sunday, and with Keira Knightley and Matthew Goode in Christmas-set British comedy Silent Night.
Lydia West
Lydia features in Russell T Davies' It’s A Sin on Channel 4 and you can also see her in romantic comedy Text for You (understandably not confirmed yet for 2021, given the state of cinemas) alongside Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan and Celine Dion.
Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness
2021's projects yet to be announced. Watch this space…
Danielle Vitalis
Danielle will star in Ear for Eye, a movie adaptation of the hit play, and is also in the BBC's beloved Caribbean murder treat, Death in Paradise.
Shaquille Ali-Yebuah
2021's projects yet to be announced. Watch this space…
Ella Balinska
Amazon recently acquired Ella's Blumhouse horror Run Sweetheart Run, in which she stars as a woman trying to escape a date gone horribly wrong with Game of Thrones' Pilou Asbæk.
Joan Iyiola
Prepare to feel a creeping sense of dread (in a good way) when DoN't cOMe HeRE comes out, starring Joan as one of a group of holidaymakers in Mallorca who turn on each other when one of their number is murdered.
Kedar Williams-Stirling
As you'll remember from Patricia Allison's entry above, Sex Education's coming back, baby! Just waiting on that official date announcement…
Shaniqua Okwok
Shaniqua evidently made it home safely after that party in Small Axe: Lovers Rock, because she's in It's a Sin on Channel 4 (alongside Lydia West, above), then you can see her in the second season of War of the Worlds on Fox.
Elliot Edusah
Elliot is in sci-fi war movie Outside the Wire with Anthony Mackie on Netflix, and then will star in Pirates, a comedy from Reggie Yates about three mates travelling across London on Millennium Eve in search of a legendary party.
Grace Saif
Grace will star in short film The Visit by Ebele Tate, and, Covid restrictions allowing, in Anthony and Cleopatra on stage at the Gate Theatre in London.
Sean Sagar
2021's projects yet to be announced. Watch this space…
Gbemisola Ikumelo
This could be Gbemisola's year: Brain in Gear, a sitcom that she writes and stars in, is going to full series on the BBC this year, and she also appears alongside The Good Place's D'Arcy Carden in Amazon's reboot of beloved baseball movie A League of their Own.
Little Simz (Simbi Ajikawo)
2021's projects yet to be announced. Watch this space…
Nicôle Lecky
Nicôle has adapted her play about sex workers, Superhoe – in which she also stars – as a six-part series for BBC3.
Rhianna Dorris
2021's projects yet to be announced. Watch this space…
Imran Adams
We can't name the project yet – it's veiled in secrecy – but Imran will be co-lead in a "dark love story" filmed late last year.
Layo-Christina Akinlude
Layo-Christina is co-writer of The Rise (in development) and will appear in an as-yet not officially announced BBC project. You can also see her in the movie Danny Boy alongside Toby Jones about the accusations of war crimes made against British soldiers in Iraq.
Tamara Lawrance
We look forward to seeing Tamara in the Christmassy romantic comedy-drama Boxing Day, about writer-director Aml Ameen's own story of bringing his American fiancée home to meet his British-Caribbean family.
Aron Julius
2021's projects yet to be announced. Watch this space…
Ruhtxjiaïh Bèllènéa
Ruhtxjiaïh will appear in the second series of Temple, Sky One's drama about a surgeon (Mark Strong) running an illegal clinic below an abandoned underground station.
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