Rakie Ayola

Rakie Olufunmilayo Ayola (born May 1968) is a Welsh actress known for her work in theatre and television and radio.

In 2023 Rakie Ayola was the 18th recipient of the prestigious BAFTA Cymru Siân Phillips Award.

At the same ceremony she also won the Bafta Cymru Best Actress Award for her performance in BBC1 series The Pact Season 2 on which she was an Executive Producer.

In 2021 Rakie Ayola won BAFTA Best Supporting Actress for BBC1 film Anthony by Jimmy McGovern.

Ayola has appeared in television shows including Kaos, The Pact Season 1, Grace, Shetland, No Offence, Midsomer Murders, Black Mirror, Noughts + Crosses, Doctor Who, Silent Witness and EastEnders, a number of Shakespearean theatrical performances and feature films such as Been So Long, Now Is Good, Great Moments in Aviation, The i Inside, Dredd, and Sahara. She appeared as Kyla Tyson in the BBC medical drama Holby City from its eighth to eleventh series.

Ayola was born in Cardiff in May 1968 to a Sierra Leonean mother and a Nigerian father.

She was raised by her mother's cousin and his wife in Ely, Cardiff.

Ayola's heritage means she is Yoruba by descent, although she does not speak the language.

Ayola studied at Windsor Clive Primary and Glan Ely High School, and was a member of the Orbit Youth Theatre, South Glamorgan Youth Theatre, South Glamorgan Youth Choir and the National Youth Theatre of Wales.

She left high school before sitting her A Levels in order to pursue her ambition of becoming an actress.

She explains: "I've always wanted to act. I decided at 16 I wanted to make my living acting, but even if I couldn't, I’d be in an amateur theatre company."

She then went on to attend the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, studying for a three-year acting diploma.

Her first acting role was for the Welsh Eisteddfod when still at primary school, playing a lady-in-waiting at the court of King Arthur.

Ayola has stated that it was Barbra Streisand's performance in Hello, Dolly! that inspired her to act as a child, though credits her adoptive mother with encouraging her to act professionally.

Ayola's first job was selling jeans on Bessemer Road Market in Cardiff.

She worked as a chambermaid whilst attending drama school, and, six weeks prior to graduation, was offered a job with the 'Made in Wales' theatre company which enabled her to obtain her union card.

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.

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".

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."

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.

Variety'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."

Ayola recalls having been daunted at the prospect of working alongside so many established names, but has said it was a "wonderful experience".

Her subsequent film credits are romantic comedy The Secret Laughter of Women, set in Nigeria and starring Colin Firth, thriller The i Inside, filmed in Sully Hospital, Cardiff, and starring Ryan Phillippe, and Sahara, filmed in Morocco whilst Ayola was pregnant with her first child, starring Penélope Cruz.

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."

Ayola's first major 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.

She went on to appear in Gone With the Wind sequel Scarlett, and star in Welsh soap opera Tiger Bay.

She has spoken critically of the way the BBC treated the soap, moving it around the schedules and declining to commission a second series.

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".

In 1996, Ayola appeared at the National Theatre in Helen Edmundson's adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.

Ayola is an advocate of increased ethnic representation in the entertainment industry, and in 2001 founded her own production company, producing the short film Persephone's Playground for the Cannes Film Festival in order to further her campaign.

In 2001, she became a presenter of the BBC Wales arts programme Double Yellow, alongside poet Owen Sheers and performance artist Mark Rees.

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".

She has identified her dream role to be that of Isabella in Measure for Measure, as she once lost out on the part and would like to prove herself capable of playing it.

In 2017, Ayola took over the role of Hermione Granger in the West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

In 2017 Ayola founded Shanty Productions with her husband Adam Smethurst.

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.

In 2021, she won a BAFTA for her role in the BBC One drama Anthony.