Rakie Ayola

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Rakie Ayola
Born
Rakie Olufunmilayo Ayoola

May 1968 (age 55–56)
Cardiff, Wales
Alma materRoyal Welsh College of Music & Drama
OccupationActress
Years active1993–present
Spouse
​
(m. 2004)​
Children2
RelativesJack Smethurst
(father-in-law)
Websiterakieayola.com

Rakie Olufunmilayo Ayola Listen

eleventh series
.

In 2017, Ayola took over the role of

West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.[1] 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.[2]

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

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.

Early life

Ayola was born in

union card.[7]

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.[11] 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".[11] 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."[11] 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".[12] She has identified her dream role to be that of Isabella in Measure for Measure,[13] as she once lost out on the part and would like to prove herself capable of playing it.[12]

Ayola's first film appearance was in the 1993 film

The i Inside, filmed in Sully Hospital, Cardiff, and starring Ryan Phillippe,[13] and Sahara, filmed in Morocco whilst Ayola was pregnant with her first child, starring Penélope Cruz.[16] 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."[11]

Ayola's first major television role was in the

BBC Wales arts programme Double Yellow, alongside poet Owen Sheers and performance artist Mark Rees.[18] 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.[18] 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",[12]
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.[18]

Ayola's other notable television appearances include the BBC

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."[24] She has also been cast in the film Dredd.[25] 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.[26]

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.[27]

Holby City

From 7 February 2006 to 9 December 2008, Ayola starred in BBC medical drama

casting director Julie Harkin.[29] After a series of three meetings, a year after the birth of her first child, she agreed to assume the role of Kyla, despite being "nervous about signing such a long contract",[21] stating: "I've been someone who's loved the uncertainty of acting. I've loved that one month it's Sahara in Morocco and the next I'm doing a stage play, then it's a six-part telly thing. But last summer I started thinking it would be really nice not to have to look for a job every couple of weeks. It would be nice just to stay put for a while. If I'm going to be a working mum I'd rather just be one rather than be one intermittently. And then Holby came along, so I'm very grateful".[9]

Ayola signed a three-year contract to play Kyla,[30] and described herself as "very similar" to her character,[31] speaking positively about her working relationship with co-stars Jaye Jacobs and Sharon D. Clarke,[32] as well as the "dream" storylines her character was given.[32] She said of the show:

"I really love Holby and I'm surprised how much. What thrills me about Holby is that you get back what you put in. The powers that be are only as interested in you as they think you are in the job. For me it's about more than turning up and saying the lines. It's about understanding it and trying to make it better. That's actually a lot of fun. What's great is nobody says, 'Just shut up.' They want you to work at it.[30] [...] I surprise myself sometimes because after two and a half years sometimes I see friends on the side of a poster and I think, 'do I want to do something else?' but I really like this job, I never get that awful 'dread' feeling when you really don’t want to go into work."[33]

In October 2008, Ayola announced that she would be departing from Holby City in order to have a second child, stating: "I've had a great time and I'll miss it. I made the decision purely because I was pregnant, but I wasn't really ready to put down the character of Kyla. I'm very sorry to have to let her go."[34]

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".

Action for Southern Africa campaign Dignity! Period, aiming to provide affordable sanitary protection to Zimbabwean women.[40]

Awards

Ayola was nominated and shortlisted for the 'Female Performance in TV' award in the 2006

yummy mummy" should have been made for her."[44] She placed 40th in 2008, with the Western Mail noting: "the last 15 years have only seen Rakie become more beautiful and more successful".[45] Ayola placed 17th in the awards in 2009.[46]
Rakie is a Trustee of ACT, the Actors' Children's Trust, and an Ambassador of PIPA, Parents in Performing Arts.

Personal life

Ayola describes herself as "optimistic, cynical, lazy, naive [and] honest".

Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2003.[6]

During a 1998 production of Hamlet, Ayola met her future husband, fellow actor Adam Smethurst – son of Love Thy Neighbour star Jack Smethurst.[3] They met again two years later, during a production of Twelfth Night, and went on to become a couple.[11] The pair married in May 2004, and Ayola gave birth to their first daughter, Tansy, in July that year.[50] Their second daughter, Shani, was born in January 2009.[51]

Filmography

Ayola has undertaken the following roles from her screen and televisual debut in 1993, to the present day.[52][53]

Film roles

Year Title Role
1993 Great Moments in Aviation Gabriel Angel
1998 The Secret Laughter of Women Talking Drum
2003
The I Inside
 Nurse Clayton
2005 Sahara Mrs Nwokolo
2012 Now Is Good Phillippa
Dredd Chief Judge
2018 Been So Long Martina

Television roles

Year Title Role Notes
1993 Nightshift
Soldier Soldier Bernie Roberts Series 3
Going Underground: A Better Life Than Mine Lauren
1994 Scarlett Pansy Mini-series
1997 Tiger Bay Helen Jarrett 8 episodes
1998 Casualty Karen Goddard "
Trapped
", series 13 episode 19
Maisie Raine DC Helen Tomlin 12 episodes
2001 London's Burning Nina Series 13 episode 1
Waking the Dead Pauline Episode "A Simple Sacrifice" parts 1 & 2
The Green-Eyed Monster Leila
EastEnders Miss French
The Armando Iannucci Shows 3 episodes
Double Yellow Presenter
2002 Being April Taneshia 6 episodes
Offenders Tyla 6 episodes
2003 Holby City Marianne Lawson "
By Any Other Name
", series 5 episode 32
Murder in Mind Cally Episode "Stalkers"
The Canterbury Tales
 Nicky Constable Episode "The Man of Law's Tale"
2004 Sea of Souls Yemi Adeoya Episode "That Old Black Magic" parts 1 and 2
2006 The Window Mojisola
Holby City Kyla Tyson Series 8-11
2008 Doctor Who Hostess "Midnight", series 4 episode 10
Bargain Hunt Famous Finds Self Series 1, episode 8, with Jack Smethurst
2009 My Almost Famous Family Shalondra Swann
2011 Black Mirror Shelly "The National Anthem"
2012
Stella
 Hilary Episode 9
Silent Witness Annie Farmer Episode "Paradise Lost"
2015 Midsomer Murders Alice Winning Episode 17.3 " The Ballad of Midsomer County"
2017 No Offence Nora Attah Series 2
2019 Shetland Olivia Lennox Series 5
2021 Grace Assistant Chief Constable Vosper
Noughts and Crosses
 Prime Minister Opal Folami
The Pact Ds Holland 6 Episodes
2022 The Pact Christine Rees Series 2 6 Episodes

Video games

Year Title Role Notes
2021 Evil Genius 2: World Domination Zalika A playable character[54]

References

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  2. ^ "Bafta Television Awards 2021: The main nominations". BBC News. 28 April 2021. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
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  5. ^ a b "BBC - Press Office - Sea of Souls Rakie Ayola". BBC Online. BBC. Retrieved 5 September 2007.
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  8. ^
    ISBN 1-85283-480-3
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  10. ^ a b "I froze in font of my first audience", Daily Mirror, London, England: Trinity Mirror, 29 August 1997, retrieved 7 November 2008
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  54. ^ "Evil Genius 2: World Domination – Emma Gameplay Trailer (Feat. Samantha Bond)". tpt.org. Retrieved 3 March 2021.

External links


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