Nikki Amuka-Bird – Wikipedia

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Nigerian-British actress (b. 1976)

Nikki Amuka-Bird (born 27 February 1976) is a Nigerian-born British actress of the stage, television, and film.

Early life[edit]

Amuka-Bird was born in Delta State, Nigeria, where her father still lives. She left there as a young child with her mother and was brought up in England, Lagos and in Antigua.[1] 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.[2]

She attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). She started her stage career with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).[3][4]

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);[2]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 [de] as well as the screen adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith’s novel The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.[5] On television, Amuka-Bird has appeared in Spooks, The Line of Beauty, The Last Enemy, Robin Hood, an episode of 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.[6] In June 2016 it was announced that she and Phoebe Fox would star in the production of Zadie Smith’s novel NW.[7] It was broadcast on BBC Two on 14 November 2016[8][9] and Amuka-Bird received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress.[10]

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 BBC One.

She is currently playing the role of Rav Mulclair, Head of Judd Mission Control, in HBO’s Avenue 5. She recently had a few film roles in 2019 for The Personal History of David Copperfield as Miss Steerforth and 2021 for Old as Patricia, a psychologist with epilepsy.

Personal life[edit]

She was married to actor Geoffrey Streatfeild from 2003 to 2010.[11]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Television[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Gray, Susan (5 January 2018). “Inteview | Nikki Amuka-Bird: ‘Mum was on the frontline of diversity, banging on doors’“. The Guardian.
  2. ^ a b Bishop, Caroline (30 June 2010). “Nikki Amuka-Bird”. OfficialLondonTheatre.com.
  3. ^ Neill, Heather (10 October 2017). “Nikki Amuka-Bird interview: ‘There’s huge enthusiasm among actors of colour’“. theartsdesk.com.
  4. ^ Wiltsher, Mary-Jane (1 November 2017). “‘It’s About The Constant Pull for Freedom’: Nikki Amuka-Bird Translates Ibsen For A Modern Audience”. Phoenix.
  5. ^ Press Office (13 March 2008). “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency – Nikki Amuka Bird plays Alice Busang”. BBC.
  6. ^ Flatcher, Alex (23 October 2008). “BBC One to adapt Levy’s ‘Small Island’“. Digital Spy.
  7. ^ Onwuemezi, Natasha (10 June 2016). “Amuka-Bird and Fox to star in NW adaptation”. The Bookseller.
  8. ^ Meltzer, Tom (14 November 2016). “NW star Nikki Amuka-Bird: ‘Zadie is purposefully challenging the viewer’“. The Guardian.
  9. ^ Lobb, Adrian (21 November 2016). “NW Star Nikki Amuka-Bird Interview: ‘Bursting through the glass ceiling can cause damage’“. The Big Issue. Archived 2016-11-22 at the Wayback Machine.
  10. ^ Hogan, Michael (21 January 2023). “On my radar: Nikki Amuka-Bird’s cultural highlights”. The Guardian.
  11. ^ Jones, Ellen E. (3 October 2017). “Nikki Amuka-Bird on plays, passion and working with Kwame Kwei-Armah”. London Evening Standard. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
  12. ^ Squires, John (19 April 2022). “‘Knock at the Cabin’ – Filming Underway on Shyamalan’s Fifteenth Feature”. Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on 19 April 2022. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  13. ^ Dalton, Ben (13 May 2022). “Brilliant Pictures acquires survival thriller ‘Jericho Ridge’ as production wraps”. Screen Daily. Retrieved 22 January 2023.

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