Wunmi Mosaku Biography

Wunmi Mosaku (born 31 July 1986) is a Nigerian-born British actress, best known for her role as Joy in the 2009 BBC Two miniseries Moses Jones, for which she was awarded "Best Actress in a Miniseries" at the Roma Fiction Festival.

Early life

Mosaku was born in Zaria, 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.

2007 to Present

Mosaku graduated from RADA in 2007 and made her stage debut at the Arcola Theatre in a production of Pedro Caldern 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 and Truth and Reconciliation, both at the Royal Court Theatre and Mules at the Young Vic. In 2009 she appeared in Katrina a verbatim play which told six people's stories of their struggles of survival when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans August 2005. Mosaku was originally cast as Sophie in the UK premiere of Ruined by Lynn Nottage at the Almeida Theatre but 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 featured on the front cover of Screen International magazine June-July 2009 as one of the UK Stars of Tomorrow, and in 2011 was featured in Nylon Magazine's 2011 Young Hollywood issue.

In 2010 Wunmi Mosaku 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. For her performance Mosaku won awards such as Best Actress at the Birmingham Black Film Festival, Best Onscreen performance at the Cultural Diversity Awards and Best Female performance at the Screen Nation Awards. In 2011 Mosaku joined Vera and played the role of Holly Lawson but left the show after just one year.

In 2015, Mosaku played the part of Quentina, a traffic warden, in the three-part BBC series Capital based on John Lanchester's novel of the same name.

Personal life

When asked to list her personal heroes, Mosaku included her grandmother Anike Adisa, whom she described as having "taught me so many lessons", actor Albert Finney who Mosaku said was her inspiration for attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, her colleague and former instructor at RADA, William Gaskill, Paul Newman who she stated she admired not just for his acting but also for his philanthropic efforts with Newman's Own, and Oprah Winfrey who Mosaku said she considers "a superwoman."

Filmography

Television

Year	Show	Role	Notes
2007	*Sold: Episode #1.5	Firefighter	ITV
2008	Never Better: "First Week Euphoria"	Server	BBC Two
2008	Doctors: "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding?"	Nurse Kelly Strathairn	BBC One
2008	The Bill: "Trial and Error: Part 1"	Sophie Oduya	ITV
2009	Moses Jones	Joy	BBC Two
2010	Silent Witness	Charlie Gibbs	BBC One
2010	One Night in Emergency	Beautiful Nurse	BBC Scotland television film
2010	Father & Son	Stacey Cox	RT One, ITV
2010	Law & Order: UK	Tamika Vincent	ITV
2011	Vera	Holly Lawson	ITV
2011	32 Brinkburn Street	Joy	BBC One
2011	The Body Farm	Rosa Gilbert	BBC One
2011	Jo	Anglique Alassane
2013	Dancing on the Edge	Carla	BBC Two
	Truckers		BBC One
2014	In the Flesh	Maxine Martin	BBC Three
2015	Don't Take My Baby	Belinda	BBC Three
	Capital	Quentina	BBC One

Film

Year	Film	Role	Director	Notes
2006	The Women of Troy	Helen of Troy	Phil Hawkins
2010	Honeymooner	Seema	Col Spector
2010	Womb	Erica	Benedek Fliegauf
2010	I Am Slave	Malia	Gabriel Range
2011	Stolen	Sonia Carney	Justin Chadwick
2011	Citadel	Marie	Ciaran Foy
2013	Philomena	Young nun	Stephen Frears
2015	Don't Take My Baby	Belinda	Ben Anthony	TV Movie
2016	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice	Kahina Ziri	Zack Snyder

Radio

• Drama on 3: The Vertical Hour (2008), on BBC Radio 3, as Terri Scholes
• Drama on 4 Normal and Nat (2009) on BBC Radio 4 as Shanice
• Drama on 4 Amazing Grace (2010) on BBC Radio 4 as Grace