Michael Ahomka-Lindsay

Ahomka-Lindsay was born in South West London to a Ghanaian father and a Sierra Leonean mother. His father is a distant descendant of Sir John Lindsay, and added the nickname Ahomka to his surname. Ahomka-Lindsay moved around growing up, with stints in Zambia, Kenya, Atlanta, and then nine years in Ghana.^[1]

Upon returning to England at 16, Ahomka-Lindsay enrolled at Wellington College in Berkshire for sixth form.^[2] He began his studies in medicine at the University of Leeds^[3] before deciding to go into theatre.^[4] He joined the National Youth Theatre and earned an Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation scholarship^[5] to train at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), graduating in 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts in Musical Theatre. He participated in the 2020 Stephen Sondheim Student Performer of the Year competition.^[6]

During the COVID-19 lockdown, Ahomka-Lindsay participated in The Show Must Go Online, for which he performed readings of the Shakespeare plays Henry V, Measure for Measure, As You Like It, and King Lear, as well as Ian Doescher's A Christmas Carol.^[7]

After graduating from drama school, Ahomka-Lindsay made his professional stage debut in Rent when it reopened in 2021 at the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester after lockdown, taking over the role of Benjamin "Benny" Coffin III from Ahmed Hamad.^[8] He also went on the UK tour of the stage adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.^[9]

In 2022, Ahomka-Lindsay played Emmett Forrest alongside Courtney Bowman in the Legally Blonde revival at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, marking Ahomka-Lindsay's London stage debut,^[10][11] for which he received a Black British Theatre Award nomination for Best Male Lead Actor in a Musical. He also appeared in To the Streets! at the Birmingham Hippodrome.^[12] Later that year and into 2023, Ahomka-Lindsay starred as the lead character Jack Kelly in the original London cast of Newsies at Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre.^[13][14] For his performance, he won a Black British Theatre Award and was nominated for the WhatsOnStage Award for Best Performer in a Musical.

Ahomka-Lindsay then had a role as David Heard in Tarell Alvin McCraney's ensemble play Choir Boy at Bristol Old Vic as David Heard.^[15][16] In January 2024, he joined the cast of Cabaret at the Playhouse Theatre on the West End as Clifford Bradshaw.^[17] He returned to Bristol Old Vic for the Europe premiere of Matthew López's Reverberation opposite Eleanor Tomlinson.^[18]