# Michaela Coel
**Michaela Coel** (born 1987) is a British actress, screenwriter, director, producer, singer and poet, born Michaela Ewuraba Boakye-Collinson in London to Ghanaian parents. She created and starred in the E4 comedy *Chewing Gum* (2015–2017) and the BBC/HBO dark comedy-drama *I May Destroy You* (2020), and in 2021 became the first Black woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special.[1](https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/michaela-coel-vital-modern-storyteller/) • [2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/michaela-coel/) • [3](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2026-08-03/michaela-coel-i-know-what-its-like-to-live-in-the-shadow-of-other-peoples-successes.html?outputType=amp)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1987, London, England, as Michaela Ewuraba Boakye-Collinson, to Ghanaian parents[1](https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/michaela-coel-vital-modern-storyteller/) |
| Training | Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating in 2012 with a Laurence Olivier bursary[4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3948190/bio/) |
| Breakthrough | *Chewing Gum*, E4 sitcom adapted from her play *Chewing Gum Dreams*, 2015–2017[2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/michaela-coel/) |
| Signature work | *I May Destroy You* (BBC/HBO, 2020), created, written, co-directed and starred in[5](https://rsliterature.org/fellows/michaela-coel/) |
| Major awards | Two Emmys, five BAFTAs, three Royal Television Society awards, a Peabody Award, two Independent Spirit Awards and a GLAAD Award for *I May Destroy You*[5](https://rsliterature.org/fellows/michaela-coel/) |
| Emmy first | First Black woman to win Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special[3](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2026-08-03/michaela-coel-i-know-what-its-like-to-live-in-the-shadow-of-other-peoples-successes.html?outputType=amp) |
| Writing | *Misfits: A Personal Manifesto* (September 2021), based on her 2018 MacTaggart Lecture[5](https://rsliterature.org/fellows/michaela-coel/) |
## Early life and education
Coel grew up on a council estate in Aldgate, on the border between Tower Hamlets and the [City of London](https://www.edgepedia.org/city-of-london), raised by her Ghanaian mother, Kuukua Kwenua Osborne, a seamstress and devout Pentecostal Christian.[1](https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/michaela-coel-vital-modern-storyteller/) • [3](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2026-08-03/michaela-coel-i-know-what-its-like-to-live-in-the-shadow-of-other-peoples-successes.html?outputType=amp) In her book *Misfits* she described the estate as sitting between the City's corporate towers and medieval alleyways, "right there, in plain sight, yet somehow unseen… that's my proud home." Despite experiencing racism as a child, she remembers the estate as a place where people knew, talked to, and helped each other.[1](https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/michaela-coel-vital-modern-storyteller/)
Her route through higher education was indirect. She studied political science at the [University of Birmingham](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-birmingham) but dropped out within a month; a later attempt at [English literature](https://www.edgepedia.org/english-literature) and theology also ended before graduating.[1](https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/michaela-coel-vital-modern-storyteller/) She then trained for three years at the [Guildhall School of Music and Drama](https://www.edgepedia.org/guildhall-school-of-music-and-drama), where she refined her voice for poetry, comedy and drama, received a Laurence Olivier bursary, and graduated in 2012.[4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3948190/bio/) • [6](https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a70247947/michaela-coel-interview-2026/) Before acting, she performed her own poems as "Michaela the Poet" at spoken-word nights across London and released an album, *Fixing Barbie*, in 2009.[7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/interviews/michaela-coel-i-may-destroy-you-misfit-education)
## Chewing Gum
Coel's senior project at [Guildhall](https://www.edgepedia.org/guildhall) was *Chewing Gum Diaries*, a semi-autobiographical one-woman show in which she played multiple characters.[2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/michaela-coel/) She expanded it into the feature-length play *Chewing Gum Dreams*, making her stage debut at the Bush Theatre in 2013, with a later run at the National Theatre in 2014.[4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3948190/bio/) • [5](https://rsliterature.org/fellows/michaela-coel/)
The play became her first television series, *Chewing Gum*, which premiered on E4 in 2015 and ran until 2017.[2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/michaela-coel/) Coel wrote and starred as Tracey Gordon, a 24-year-old church girl on a mission to lose her virginity, exaggerating her own childhood and adolescence in [East London](https://www.edgepedia.org/east-london) as a religious fanatic; the role won her a BAFTA.[3](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2026-08-03/michaela-coel-i-know-what-its-like-to-live-in-the-shadow-of-other-peoples-successes.html?outputType=amp) The Royal Television Society gave her its Breakthrough Award for the series.[8](https://rts.org.uk/sites/default/files/imce/press_release_rts_craft_and_design_winners.pdf) Behind the scenes, she has said she was fighting against unfair treatment of herself and her Black castmates during the show's run.[9](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/michaela-coel-creative-icon-2020)
## I May Destroy You
While writing the second series of *Chewing Gum*, Coel's drink was spiked at a bar and she was sexually assaulted. She disclosed this publicly in her MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival in August 2018, a speech to an industry audience of about 4,000 that caused a sensation, and later fictionalized the experience in *I May Destroy You*.[7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/interviews/michaela-coel-i-may-destroy-you-misfit-education) • [10](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/sep/05/michaela-coel-you-ask-the-questions-misfits-personal-manifesto-interview)
The series, a BBC and HBO co-production, premiered in June 2020 with Coel as creator, writer, co-director, executive producer and star, playing the writer Arabella Essiuedu, whose life is upended by a nightclub assault.[5](https://rsliterature.org/fellows/michaela-coel/) • [11](https://rts.org.uk/article/michaela-coel-s-new-drama-i-may-destroy-you-heads-bbc-one) Rather than a story of vengeance or catharsis, the show becomes a study in consent, placing Arabella and her friends in situations that examine the gray areas of the consent conversation.[12](https://time.com/5935604/golden-globes-nominations-snubs-surprises-2021/) Coel has said she initially wanted to make a series about sexual assault because of her own experience, but as people with similar stories reached out, she began to think more broadly about the many ways consent affects people.[13](https://freshairarchive.org/segments/i-may-destroy-you-let-michaela-coel-explore-dangerous-areas-safe-place)
**Creative control.** Coel turned down a $1 million offer from Netflix because the company would not allow her full creative control over the series; she has said that it felt odd for a streaming service to demand 100 percent of her rights while she was directing, starring and writing the show. The BBC instead offered a partnership, and the series was made as a co-production with HBO.[14](https://api.mountainscholar.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/d7f71b36-3061-44a8-a7b0-3d37ab53db00/content) • [15](https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/42556/7/42556_DAVIES_%20Collaboration_cooperation_and_authorship_in_screenwriting.pdf) She runs her own production company, FALKNA Productions.[16](https://www.backstage.com/uk/magazine/article/how-i-may-destroy-you-got-made-73447/)
The series won two Emmys, five BAFTAs, three [Royal Television Society](https://www.edgepedia.org/royal-television-society) awards, a Peabody Award, two [Independent Spirit Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/independent-spirit-awards) and a GLAAD Award, among others.[5](https://rsliterature.org/fellows/michaela-coel/) Her Emmy for writing made her the first Black woman to win that category.[3](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2026-08-03/michaela-coel-i-know-what-its-like-to-live-in-the-shadow-of-other-peoples-successes.html?outputType=amp)
## Writing and recognition
Coel's first book, *Misfits: A Personal Manifesto*, was released in September 2021 and is based on her 2018 MacTaggart Lecture.[5](https://rsliterature.org/fellows/michaela-coel/) She was elected a Fellow of the [Royal Society of Literature](https://www.edgepedia.org/royal-society-of-literature) in 2022.[5](https://rsliterature.org/fellows/michaela-coel/) She has mentored emerging writers, shared her scripts and notes, and written about her own beginnings in the industry.[1](https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/michaela-coel-vital-modern-storyteller/)
## Acting career beyond her own shows
Coel's screen credits outside her own creations include *The Aliens* ([Channel 4](https://www.edgepedia.org/channel-4), 2016), two episodes of [Charlie Brooker](https://www.edgepedia.org/charlie-brooker)'s *Black Mirror* ("Nosedive" in series three and "USS Callister" in series four), the [BBC Two](https://www.edgepedia.org/bbc-two)/Netflix drama *Black Earth Rising* (2018), the film *Been So Long* (2018), *Star Wars: The Last Jedi*, and *Black Panther: Wakanda Forever* (2022), in which she played the Dora Milaje warrior Aneka.[5](https://rsliterature.org/fellows/michaela-coel/) • [17](https://maisontwo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Michaela-Coel-CV-new.pdf) • [6](https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a70247947/michaela-coel-interview-2026/) Her theater work includes roles in *Home*, *Medea* and *Blurred Lines* at the National Theatre and *Three Birds* at the Bush Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange.[5](https://rsliterature.org/fellows/michaela-coel/)
## Recent and upcoming work
Two films brought Coel back to screens in 2025 and 2026 after *Wakanda Forever*: [Steven Soderbergh](https://www.edgepedia.org/steven-soderbergh)'s chamber comedy *The Christophers*, in which she plays a restoration specialist hired to finish paintings by an artist played by [Ian McKellen](https://www.edgepedia.org/ian-mckellen), and David Lowery's A24 musical drama *Mother Mary*, in which she plays costume designer Sam Anselm opposite [Anne Hathaway](https://www.edgepedia.org/anne-hathaway)'s pop star.[18](https://apnews.com/article/93e7bf630e96e7378a73e969ad300ff9) • [19](https://www.vogue.com/article/michaela-coel-two-press-tours-fashion) • [3](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2026-08-03/michaela-coel-i-know-what-its-like-to-live-in-the-shadow-of-other-peoples-successes.html?outputType=amp)
Her next television series, *First Day on Earth*, reunites her with the BBC and HBO as a 10-part co-production made in association with A24, with Coel writing, starring and executive producing and Sam Miller co-directing. She plays Henri, a British-Ghanaian novelist on the run who ends up in Ghana, her ancestral homeland; the cast includes Thandiwe Newton, Maxine Peake, Danny Sapani and Ncuti Gatwa, and filming was underway as of February 2026.[20](https://www.thecustardtv.com/the-bbc-announce-cast-for-new-michaela-coel-drama/) The role mirrors her own background as a Briton born to Ghanaian parents, raised by her mother in London while her father returned to Africa.[3](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2026-08-03/michaela-coel-i-know-what-its-like-to-live-in-the-shadow-of-other-peoples-successes.html?outputType=amp)
## References
1. [Michaela Coel: A vital modern storyteller, London Museum](https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/michaela-coel-vital-modern-storyteller/)
2. [Michaela Coel, TV Insider](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/michaela-coel/)
3. [Michaela Coel: 'I know what it's like to live in the shadow of other people's successes', EL PAÍS English](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2026-08-03/michaela-coel-i-know-what-its-like-to-live-in-the-shadow-of-other-peoples-successes.html?outputType=amp)
4. [Michaela Coel – Biography, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3948190/bio/)
5. [Coel, Michaela, Royal Society of Literature](https://rsliterature.org/fellows/michaela-coel/)
6. [Michaela Coel Has New Truths to Tell, Harper's Bazaar](https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a70247947/michaela-coel-interview-2026/)
7. [The misfit-education of Michaela Coel, Sight and Sound, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/interviews/michaela-coel-i-may-destroy-you-misfit-education)
8. [RTS Craft and Design Awards press release, Royal Television Society](https://rts.org.uk/sites/default/files/imce/press_release_rts_craft_and_design_winners.pdf)
9. [How Michaela Coel broke the mould with I May Destroy You, British GQ](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/michaela-coel-creative-icon-2020)
10. [Michaela Coel: 'Sometimes pain is something to be grateful for', The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/sep/05/michaela-coel-you-ask-the-questions-misfits-personal-manifesto-interview)
11. [Michaela Coel's new drama I May Destroy You heads to BBC One, Royal Television Society](https://rts.org.uk/article/michaela-coel-s-new-drama-i-may-destroy-you-heads-bbc-one)
12. [The 11 Weirdest Golden Globe Nominations, Time](https://time.com/5935604/golden-globes-nominations-snubs-surprises-2021/)
13. ['I May Destroy You' Let Michaela Coel Explore Dangerous Areas In A Safe Place, Fresh Air Archive](https://freshairarchive.org/segments/i-may-destroy-you-let-michaela-coel-explore-dangerous-areas-safe-place)
14. [HBO and I May Destroy You, Mountain Scholar thesis](https://api.mountainscholar.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/d7f71b36-3061-44a8-a7b0-3d37ab53db00/content)
15. [Collaboration, cooperation and authorship in screenwriting, University of Greenwich thesis](https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/42556/7/42556_DAVIES_%20Collaboration_cooperation_and_authorship_in_screenwriting.pdf)
16. [How 'I May Destroy You' Got Made, Backstage](https://www.backstage.com/uk/magazine/article/how-i-may-destroy-you-got-made-73447/)
17. [Michaela Coel CV](https://maisontwo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Michaela-Coel-CV-new.pdf)
18. [Movie Review: Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel are razor-sharp in art comedy 'The Christophers', AP News](https://apnews.com/article/93e7bf630e96e7378a73e969ad300ff9)
19. [For Michaela Coel, Two Press Tours Calls for Double the Fashion, Vogue](https://www.vogue.com/article/michaela-coel-two-press-tours-fashion)
20. [The BBC announce cast for new Michaela Coel drama, The Custard TV](https://www.thecustardtv.com/the-bbc-announce-cast-for-new-michaela-coel-drama/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › English actors: 2000s onward › Surnames C*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license