Olivia-Mai Barrett

Olivia-Mai Barrett (born 10 May 1996) is an English actress, singer and dancer from London, UK. Having trained at Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, she has gone on to feature in commercials (for companies such as Amazon and VO5), music videos, theatre and film and is most notable for her role of Penny in Penny on M.A.R.S. and Alex & Co. on the Disney Channel.[1]

In 2019, she was the sole actress in the last of 8 episodes of the BBC mini-series, Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle, a series showcasing an account of life in the UK for successive generations of people with Caribbean heritage, as Michaela Williams. Created by Lenny Henry and Kwame Kwei-Armah and co-produced by the Young Vic and Henry's Douglas Road Productions.[2] Her performance was singled out in The Observer with Kwei-Armah stating: "Her performance was incredible, I was amazed at how she brought such empathy and insight to the part".[3] It was only a few days after the final episode had aired that Olivia Mai - Barrett introduced him to her mixed-race father and Jamaican grandfather, Kwei-Armah hadn't even known that Olivia was of mixed heritage and that the Windrush story was part of her family background.