Jade Anouka

Jade Anouka is an English actress. She is known for her various stage roles and for her appearances in His Dark Materials on BBC One and the ITV dramas Trauma and Cleaning Up.[2]

Jade Anouka
Born
Slade Green, London, England[1]
NationalityBritish
EducationGuildford School of Acting
OccupationActress, poet
Years active2007–present
WebsiteOfficial website

Early life and education

Anouka was born in London, the second of three children born to a maths teacher mother from Trinidad and a mortgage adviser father from Jamaica.[3] She has a brother and a sister who pursued careers in science.[2][4] She grew up in Slade Green and attended school in Bexley, London, but asked to transfer to a school in Lewisham for sixth form, as she was one of the few black students in Bexley.[2] She ran track prior to transferring to Lewisham, as she did not want to compete against her old teammates.[4]

Anouka took her first steps into acting while attending a Saturday morning drama club in Dartford, Kent.[5] While at sixth form, Anouka received a scholarship to the National Youth Theatre[3] and then attended the Guildford School of Acting. She was hired immediately after graduation by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, where she earned a postgraduate award in teaching Shakespeare.[1]

Career

Anouka made her stage debut in 2007 with a role in Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad.[3] In 2011, she received a Commendation at the Ian Charleson Awards for her 2010 performance as Ophelia in Hamlet at Shakespeare's Globe.[6][7]

She had small television roles in Doctor Who (2013), Chewing Gum (2015), and Stan Lee's Lucky Man before getting a supporting role in the 2018 miniseries Trauma.[3] She appeared in a 2020 episode (S9:E3) of Death in Paradise.

In 2014, she received the Stage Award for Acting Excellence for her one-woman show, Sabrina Mahfouz's Chef, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.[8][9] In 2015, she brought the show to London for a week of special performances.[10]

Anouka took part in Phyllida Lloyd's all-female Shakespeare trilogy, starring as Mark Antony in Julius Caesar at the Donmar Warehouse, Hotspur in Henry IV at the Donmar Theatre, and Ariel in The Tempest at the King's Cross Theatre, and on Broadway. She earned rave reviews for her roles in the three plays, which were broadcast on the BBC in 2018.[11] In 2018, she also played Margaret of Anjou in Jeanie O'Hare's Queen Margaret, at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.[2][1] She was named among the InStyle BAFTA Breakout Stars for 2018.[3]

In 2019, Anouka appeared in Cleaning Up, a six-part drama on ITV[12] and the Netflix series Turn Up Charlie.[4]

In August 2020 she confirmed that she was to appear as Ruta Skadi in series two of the BBC/HBO fantasy drama His Dark Materials.[13]

Anouka performs her poetry on stage,[14] and in 2016, she published a volume of her poetry called Eggs on Toast.[5]

References
  1. Curtis, Nick (30 January 2018). "Trauma star Jade Anouka: There is nothing in the show about my race". Evening Standard. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  2. Wise, Louis (26 August 2018). "Jade Anouka interview: the actress and poet on her role in Jeanie O'Hare's Queen Margaret". The Times. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  3. Christie, Janet (5 January 2019). "Interview: Rising star Jade Anouka on her new TV drama 'Cleaning Up'". The Scotsman. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  4. Harvey, Chris (8 January 2019). "Jade Anouka: 'Lead roles for black actors here are really rare'". The Independent. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  5. Tutt, Louise (2 October 2017). "Stars of Tomorrow 2017: Jade Anouka (actor)". Screen Daily. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  6. Wise, Louis. "Here's to a Jumbo talent". Sunday Times. 27 May 2012.
  7. "Winners and Nominees of the Ian Charleson Awards 2011". WestEndTheatre.com. 30 June 2012.
  8. "The best of the Edinburgh Fringe". The Spectator. 16 August 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  9. "Edinburgh theatre 2014: what to see". The Daily Telegraph. 24 August 2014. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
  10. Moses, Caro (15 June 2015). "Jade Anouka: Chef". ThisWeek London.
  11. Gardner, Lyn (23 November 2016). "Shakespeare Trilogy review – Donmar's phenomenal all-female triumph". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  12. Kleeman, Tasha (6 January 2019). "On my radar: Jade Anouka's cultural highlights". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  13. "Loose Ends - Jade Anouka, Sindhu Vee, Ben Hart, Raphael Rowe, Black Pumas, Lady Blackbird, Christopher Eccleston, Nikki Bedi". BBC Radio 4. 1 August 2020.
  14. "Three To See on 19 Jun: Jade Anouka Poetry, Roman Candle, The Croydon Avengers". ThisWeek London. 12 June 2018. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
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