Rakie Ayola

Rakie Ayola is a British actor and producer.

She received the 2021 Best Supporting Actress BAFTA Award for her portrayal of Gee Walker in Jimmy McGovern's TV drama Anthony (BBC1), for which she was also nominated for Best Actor in a Drama at the prestigious Edinburgh TV Festival. In 2020 she won Best Female Performance in a Play at the Black British Theatre Awards, for the National Theatre of Wales and Royal Court co-production On Bear Ridge in which she starred opposite Rhys Ifans. With her husband Adam Smethurst, Rakie co-founded Shanty Productions and was executive producer of their film Twelfth Night, for which she was nominated for a Screen Nation Independent Spirit of Production Award (2019).

Rakie has worked prolifically on stage, TV, radio and film. Her recent work includes Alex Rider (Amazon Prime Video), Grace (ITV),The Pact, Noughts and Crosses and Shetland for the BBC and No Offence (Channel 4). Her stage work includes a year playing Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre, West End, King Lear at the Manchester Royal Exchange, A Winter's Tale at the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time on the West End and The Half God of Rainfall at the Kiln Theatre (BBTA Nomination) 2019.

Rakie grew up in Ely in Cardiff and is a Fellow and alumna of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. In 2019 she was awarded an Honorary D. Litt by Warwick University. She is an ambassador for campaign group Parents In Performing Arts, a patron of the Childhood Tumour Trust and a trustee of The Actors' Children's Trust.

Career[]

Ayola began her career in the theatre, performing in a number of Shakespearean plays including Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice and Macbeth.^[1] She states of this: "Shakespeare keeps coming my way. I love the fact that I get to play people who are much more articulate than I'll ever be".^[1] In 1991 she played Hazel in John Godber's Up 'n' Under at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff. Ayola has also performed in Twelfth Night in the lead roles of both Olivia and Viola. She explains: "The role of Viola didn't sit that well with me for some reason but Olivia makes more sense."^[1] She has also appeared in modern performances, assuming the title role of Dido, Queen of Carthage at the Globe Theatre in London in 2003, which she described as "a dream of a part".^[2] She has identified her dream role to be that of Isabella in Measure for Measure,^[3] as she once lost out on the part and would like to prove herself capable of playing it.^[2]

Ayola's first film appearance was in the 1993 film Great Moments in Aviation, written by Jeanette Winterson, in which she starred alongside Jonathan Pryce and John Hurt.^[4] Variety magazine's David Rooney said of her performance: "In the film's most naturalistic turn, Ayola is a constant pleasure to watch. Unforced and appealing, she often succeeds in pulling the fanciful fireworks momentarily back down to Earth."^[5] Ayola recalls having been daunted at the prospect of working alongside so many established names, but has said it was a "wonderful experience".^[6] Her subsequent film credits are romantic comedy The Secret Laughter of Women, set in Nigeria and starring Colin Firth,^[7] thriller The i Inside, filmed in Sully Hospital, Cardiff, and starring Ryan Phillippe,^[3] and Sahara, filmed in Morocco whilst Ayola was pregnant with her first child, starring Penélope Cruz.^[8] Ayola says of her film career: "I really like doing film [but] I've not done enough big films though to really know the difference between film and television."^[1]

Ayola's first prolific television role was in the ITV drama Soldier Soldier, in which she starred throughout its third series in 1993 as soldier's wife Bernie Roberts. Ayola credits her chemistry with co-star Akim Mogaji, who played her on-screen husband Luke Roberts, for winning her her audition.^[6] She went on to appear in Gone With the Wind sequel Scarlett,^[4] and star in Welsh soap opera Tiger Bay.^[9] She has spoken critically of the way the BBC treated the soap, moving it around the schedules and declining to commission a second series.^[7] She acted alongside Pauline Quirke in both Maisie Raine and Being April, deeming Quirke to be a "fantastic" actress, and one she would work alongside again "like a shot".^[7] In 1996, Ayola appeared at the National Theatre in Helen Edmundson's adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. In 2001, she became a presenter of the BBC Wales arts programme Double Yellow, alongside poet Owen Sheers and performance artist Mark Rees.^[10] She posed nude but for a pair of yellow rubber gloves to promote the show's launch, and was highly critical of the BBC when the show was cancelled midway through its second series.^[10] She has since concluded that "the kind of audience they would like to bring in with shows like Double Yellow aren't really into watching TV",^[2] but at the time was outspoken against the show's cancellation, stating:

I'm still really angry about Double Yellow, about how the whole thing was handled. I was very proud of it. It was something innovative from BBC Wales for a change. So it didn't find its audience, and of course you can't force people to watch it, so if it wasn't going to get a third series then fine, that happens all the time. But the way the BBC axed it mid-series was unforgivable. [...] It left everyone very, very miserable, and very dispirited, and it made me angry. [...] Also, I have to say that Double Yellow was nominated for a Bafta Cymru award. As far as I'm aware, the BBC only allowed it to be nominated for that one award, for the graphics. We had fantastic editors, sound people, camera people, and the directors were all amazing. All those professionals whose work has just been thrown out - I hate that.^[10]

Ayola's other notable television appearances include the BBC psychological thriller Green-Eyed Monster (2001),^[11] soap opera EastEnders (2001),^[12] Waking the Dead (2001), London's Burning (2001),^[13] Offenders (2002),^[14] Murder in Mind (2003), The Canterbury Tales (2003) and Sea of Souls (2004).^[13] In 2008, she starred in the Doctor Who episode "Midnight", playing an intergalactic Hostess alongside David Tennant's Tenth Doctor.^[15] In 2009, Ayola starred in the CBBC musical comedy My Almost Famous Family. She stated: "The script made me laugh out loud when I read it. [...] I also like the fact that there were a lot of politically-correct boxes being ticked, but the writers and producer haven't been restrained by that. "So, instead of bowing to this altar, they've said, 'Okay, we have this family that's half-black, half-white, half-American, half-British. We have a mix of boys and girls, one character who's mixed-raced and deaf – but we're not going to be restrained by any of that. We're not going to tiptoe around Martha's disability or anything.' I liked that. It wasn't some sort of reverential hands-off approach to what we're presenting."^[16] She has also been cast in the film Dredd.^[17] In 2016 she played Amber Haleford in "Tuesday's Child", S6:E2 of Vera. She joined the cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre, London from 24 May 2017, playing the role of Hermione Granger.^[18]

In 2020, she won the Best Female Actor in a Play award at the Black British Theatre Awards for her performance in On Bear Ridge for National Theatre Wales and the Royal Court.^[19]

Race and charity work[]

Throughout her career, Ayola has been outspoken on the subject of racial discrimination in the entertainment industry. Describing her motivation, she states: "I am not an overtly political person. I just want fairness".^[20] Ayola believes that black actors receive less recognition than their white counterparts, explaining; "If you get a show with six stars and one is black you are more likely to see interviews with the five white actors. [...] They are not being sold as a reason to watch."^[21] She believes that her career would have taken her in a different direction were she not Black, stating: "I could not have played any of the roles I have played on TV if I was white [...] I am very aware of where the glass ceiling is and it's still very low and expectations are still very low".^[22] She has noted having casting directors accept the notion of characters being both black and Welsh to be a particular problem, explaining that: "I get offered a lot of very different roles, but they're never Welsh. [...] The one time I was asked to play a Welsh character on screen was in Tiger Bay for BBC Wales, but I know if that series had been called Radyr Park or Cyncoed Close I wouldn't have been in it".^[23] In 2001, Ayola founded a production company and directed a short film entitled Persephone's Playground. She presented the film at the Cannes film festival, using it as part of her campaign for increased black representation in theatre, films and television.^[20] The project, however, was largely unsuccessful, with Ayola stating: "it just made me decide that if there's anything I don't want to do, it's produce films, because I'm rubbish at it. I was so bad with the budget that I just said yes to everything and then had to worry about how to pay for things at the end."^[24] In 2008, Ayola offered her support to the Action for Southern Africa campaign Dignity! Period, aiming to provide affordable sanitary protection to Zimbabwean women.^[25]

Rakie is a patron for Childhood Tumour Trust - a charity that supports children and young people affected by Neurofibromatosis Type 1

Awards[]

In 2021 Rakie won a BAFTA TV Award for 'Supporting Actress' for her role in BBC One drama "Anthony". In 2020 she won Best Female Performance in a Play at the Black British Theatre Awards, for the National Theatre of Wales and Royal Court co-production On Bear Ridge. In 2018, celebrating Black History Month in the United Kingdom, Rakie was included in a list of 100 "Brilliant, Black and Welsh" people.^[26] Ayola was nominated and shortlisted for the 'Female Performance in TV' award in the 2006 Screen Nation Awards, for her role as Kyla Tyson in Holby City.^[27] She received Honourable Mention for the same role the following year,^[28] and was shortlisted again in 2008.^[29]

Personal life[]

During a 1998 production of Hamlet, Ayola met her future husband, fellow actor Adam Smethurst – son of Love Thy Neighbour star Jack Smethurst.^[30] They met again two years later, during a production of Twelfth Night, and went on to become a couple.^[1] The pair married in May 2004, and Ayola gave birth to their first daughter, Tansy, in July that year.^[31] Their second daughter, Shani, was born in January 2009.^[32]

Filmography[]

Film roles[]

Television roles[]

Video games[]

References[]

External links[]

• Rakie Ayola at IMDb