Paapa Essiedu

Essiedu joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in 2012 to play Fenton in Phillip Breen's production of The Merry Wives of Windsor. Afterwards, he went to the National Theatre, playing Burgundy and understudying Edmund in Sam Mendes’ production of King Lear. When Sam Troughton lost his voice during a performance, Essiedu stepped in and played the role to critical acclaim.[8] He has acted in Outside on the Street (Pleasance Theatre), Black Jesus (Finborough Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Tobacco Factory), You For Me For You (Royal Court), and most recently the title role in Hamlet and Edmund in King Lear, both at the RSC. The judges described his Hamlet as one the audience listened to "completely still", and they noted that as an actor he could turn on a sixpence – sweet, playful and flirtatious one minute, and fiercely intelligent the next. "Like all great actors", a judge noted, he "made all the lines his own". His Edmund in King Lear was noted for his chilling contempt and cynicism.[3]

In 2020, Essiedu played a lead role in the BBC series I May Destroy You.[7] In 2021, he was seen filming Extinction for Sky television[9] and played George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford in Anne Boleyn for Channel 5.[10]

Paapa appeared as Tunde in the BBC Radio 3 drama As Innocent As You Can Get (2016) by Rex Obano,[11] and in the BBC Radio 4 drama Wide Open Spaces the same year, in which he played the role of a man determined to overcome his agoraphobia in order to keep his promise to visit his daughter's grave on the first anniversary of her death.[12]