The unstoppable Michaela Coel triumphs (again) at the BAFTAs

The inimitably multi-talented Michaela Ewuraba Boakye-Collinson (Michaela Coel professionally) took home two coveted BAFTAs – Leading Actress and Mini-Series for I May Destroy You – at last night’s British Academy of Film and Television Arts 2021.

Michael triumphed over other big name nominees such as Black Panther’s Letitia Wright and Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer. Her win comes on the heels of her three wins at the British Academy Television Craft Awards in May.
Over the past few years, Michaela has grabbed British television by the scruff of the neck and shaken it awake to the realities of a multicultural and global world.
Michaela is indeed blessed with an abundance of talent – she’s a director, screenwriter, producer and singer in addition to being perhaps the most outstanding actress of her generation. Her presence on the screen has been described as “a smouldering volcano about to erupt”.
The BBC/HBO comedy-drama series, I May Destroy You, which she wrote, co-directed and executive-produced, was perhaps 2020’s most talked about – and praised – series. In it, she plays a writer who is raped after being given a spiked drink. As she tries to piece together what happened to her, she takes the viewer on a complex and funny journey, questioning the concept of consent, power relations, and dealing with bad experiences.
The UK Guardian TV critic, Lucy Mangan wrote of the series: “It is, in short, an extraordinary, breath-taking achievement without a false note in it, shot through with humour and with ideas, talent and character to burn at every perfectly plotted turn.”
Michaela had previously already shaken the TV establishment by creating and starring in the hugely popular comedy Chewing Gum, for which she also won a BAFTA award. She followed this with a staggering performance in Black Earth Rising and the musical Been So Long.

Given her dominance on both the big and small screens – on both sides of the Atlantic – it is no wonder she appeared in the 2020 Most Influential Lists of New African, Time magazine, British Vogue as well as our very own Women of the Year and Cover (above)

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More black talented

This year’s BAFTAs, which some British media outlets described as “giving a nod to diversity”, also saw other black talents honoured, including Welsh-born black actress Rakie Ayola who won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in Anthony, a movie about the murdered black teenager Anthony Walker. Walker, who was just 18, was murdered with an ice axe by Michael Barton and Paul Taylor, in an unprovoked, racially motivated attack on 29 July 2005 in the area of Huyton, Liverpool.
In an article headlined “ The killing of Anthony: The boy who died because of the colour of his skin,” the Independent reported how the Walker family were the first black family to live in Huyton, and were subjects of relentless racial abuse and name-calling, including at the children’s school. Rakie Ayola plays Anthony’s mother Gee in the movie.

The series, Sitting In Limbo, which tells the story of the Windrush scandal, took the gong for best single drama. Malachi Kirby, took home the best-supporting actor BAFTA for his role as civil rights activist Darcus Howe in the Mangrove instalment of Steve McQueens Small Axe.
But perhaps the shock winner of the night was the spoken word series Life & Rhymes (fronted by poet Benjamin Zephaniah) which trounced renowned heavyweights such as Strictly Come Dancing, Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway and The Masked Singer, to win the BAFTA for best entertainment programme.
According to DEADLINE, Michaela Coel is working on a new series for the BBC.