Wunmi Mosaku

Mosaku was born in Zaria, Nigeria,^[7] to Yoruba parents who were both professors.^[8] When she was one year old, the family emigrated to Manchester, England, where she was raised and attended the Trinity Church of England High School and Xaverian Sixth Form College.^[9] She sang for eleven years in the Manchester Girls Choir. Her mother Irene started a business and her father eventually returned to Nigeria. She has two older sisters.^[5] Mosaku studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA),^[10] graduating in 2007 with a BA degree in Acting (H Level).^[10][11]

Mosaku made her professional stage debut in 2007 at the Arcola Theatre in a production of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's The Great Theatre of the World.^[2] Her other theatre credits including Rough Crossings (2008), directed by Rupert Goold and based on the book by Simon Schama, at the Lyric Hammersmith;^[2] The Vertical Hour (2010)^[2] by David Hare and Truth and Reconciliation (2011),^[2] both at the Royal Court Theatre.^[2]

In 2008, she appeared in the first of the UNDEREXPOSED exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery, designed to raise the profile of black role models and celebrates the talent that exists among the Black British community.^[2] Her photo also appeared on Commercial Way, Peckham, London, as part of the exhibition. In 2009, she starred in the BBC Two series Moses Jones, for which she won Best Actress in a Miniseries at the Rome Fiction Festival.^[12]

Mosaku featured on the front cover of Screen International magazine June–July 2009, as one of the UK Stars of Tomorrow, and in 2011 was featured in Nylon's 2011 Young Hollywood issue. In 2010, she was named one of The Seven Fresh Faces of Toronto International Film Festival, for I Am Slave,^[13] in which she starred. She plays Malia, a girl who has been kidnapped from her village in Sudan and sold into slavery.^[13] Her performance garnered several awards: Best Actress at the Birmingham Black Film Festival, Best Onscreen Performance at the Cultural Diversity Awards, and Best Female Performance at the Screen Nation Awards.^[13]

In 2011, Mosaku appeared in Vera as Holly Lawson.^[7] In 2015, Mosaku played the part of Quentina, a traffic warden, in the three-part BBC series Capital, based on John Lanchester's novel of the same name.^[14] In 2016, she appeared in Playtest, an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror.^[7] She won the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Gloria Taylor in the television film Damilola, Our Loved Boy (2016).^[15]

In 2025, Mosaku appeared as the hoodoo healer Annie in Ryan Coogler's vampire film Sinners. The New York Times called her performance "the soulful core" of the movie.^[16] She later received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance at the 98th Academy Awards. Sinners led the field with a record 16 total nominations, including Mosaku's supporting acting nomination.^[17][18]

When asked to list her personal heroes, Mosaku included her grandmother Anike Adisa, whom she described as having "taught me so many lessons"; actor Albert Finney, who was her inspiration for attending RADA; her colleague and former instructor at RADA, William Gaskill; Paul Newman, whom she admired, not just for his acting, but also for his philanthropic efforts with Newman's Own; and Oprah Winfrey, whom Mosaku considers "a superwoman".^[19]

Mosaku moved to Los Angeles, California in 2018,^[20] and married American talent and literary manager Tash Moseley two years later.^[21] They welcomed a daughter in 2024,^[16][22] and in January 2026 announced that they were currently expecting their second child.^[23] Mosaku has been taking Yoruba language lessons since 2020.^[16]

Political views

During Donald Trump's second presidential term, Mosaku publicly criticized the administration's immigration enforcement policies on various occasions. In a February 2026 interview with The Sunday Times, she stated that she was unable to celebrate her Oscar nomination in light of recent deaths connected to federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota, describing the political climate as "truly dystopian."^[24]

Film

More information Year, Film ...

Year	Film	Role	Director	Notes
2006	The Women of Troy	Helen of Troy	Phil Hawkins
2010	Honeymooner	Seema	Col Spector
	Womb	Erica	Benedek Fliegauf
2012	Citadel	Marie	Ciarán Foy
2013	Philomena	Young nun	Stephen Frears
2016	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice	Kahina Ziri	Zack Snyder
	Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them	Beryl	David Yates
2018	Leading Lady Parts	Herself	Jessica Swale	Short film
2019	Sweetness in the Belly	Amina	Zeresenay Berhane Mehari
2020	His House	Rial	Remi Weekes
2022	Call Jane	Gwen	Phyllis Nagy
	Alice, Darling	Sophie	Mary Nighy
2024	Deadpool & Wolverine	Hunter B-15	Shawn Levy
2025	Sinners	Annie	Ryan Coogler
2026	The Social Reckoning	Raya	Aaron Sorkin	Post-production
	The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd	TBA	Tim Blake Nelson	Post-production[25]
TBA	This Is How It Goes	Belinda	Idris Elba	Post-production[26]

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Television

More information Year, Show ...

Year	Show	Role	Notes
2007	Sold	Firefighter	Episode #1.5
2008	Never Better	Server	Episode: "First Week Euphoria"
	Doctors	Nurse Kelly Strathairn	Episode: "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding?"
	The Bill	Sophie Oduya	Episode: "Trial and Error: Part 1"
2009	Father & Son	Stacey Cox	Miniseries
	Moses Jones	Joy
2010	One Night in Emergency	Beautiful nurse	Television film
	Silent Witness	Charlie Gibbs	4 episodes (series 13)
	I Am Slave	Malia	Television film
	Law & Order: UK	Tamika Vincent	Episode: "Survivor"
2011	32 Brinkburn Street	Joy	5 episodes
	Stolen	Sonia Carey	Television film
	The Body Farm	Rosa Gilbert	Miniseries
2011–2012	Vera	DC Holly Lawson	5 episodes (series 1–2)
2012	Blackout	Millie Caswell	Miniseries
2013	Dancing on the Edge	Carla
	Jo	Angélique Alassane
	Truckers	Danielle	Episode #1.3
2014	In the Flesh	Maxine Martin	6 episodes (series 2)
2015	Capital	Quentina	Miniseries
	Don't Take My Baby	Belinda	Television film
2016	Black Mirror	Katie	Episode: "Playtest"
	Scott & Bailey	Rae Milton	2 episodes (series 5)
	Damilola, Our Loved Boy	Gloria Taylor	Television film
2017	Guerrilla	Kenya	Miniseries
	Fearless	DCS Olivia Greenwood
	The End of the F***ing World	DC Teri Darego	5 episodes (series 2)
2018	Kiri	DI Vanessa Mercer	Miniseries
	On the Edge	Tessa	Episode: "Through the Gates"
2019	Luther	DS Catherine Halliday	4 episodes (series 5)
	Animal Babies: First Year on Earth	Narrator	Voice; docuseries
	Temple	Mercy King	Miniseries
2020	Lovecraft Country	Ruby Baptiste	10 episodes
2021–2023	Loki	Hunter B-15 / Dr. Verity Willis	11 episodes
2022	We Own This City	Nicole Steele	Miniseries
2023	Scavengers Reign	Azi	Voice; 12 episodes
2024	Boarders	Grace	4 episodes (series 2)
	Passenger	Riya Ajunwa	6 episodes

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• Drama on 3: The Vertical Hour (2008) on BBC Radio 3, as Terri Scholes
• Drama on 4: Normal and Nat (2009) on BBC Radio 4, as Shanice
• Drama on 4: Amazing Grace (2010) on BBC Radio 4, as Grace