Wunmi Mosaku: From Zaria to BAFTA Glory and an Oscar Nomination

When Wunmi Mosaku collected the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress at London’s Royal Festival Hall in February, the 39-year-old broke down in tears. She was the first Black British winner in the category’s history. She was also pregnant, and the moment clearly overwhelmed her.

“I was like, ‘That can’t be right’. I was really shocked and I lost my breath and couldn’t quite believe it,” she told the winners’ press conference afterward.

Born in Zaria, Nigeria, Mosaku moved to Manchester with her family when she was barely a year old. Her path from a council estate in Longsight to the BAFTA stage runs through the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, a £3.50 Megabus fare, and a childhood obsession with the 1980s musical Annie.

Finding Annie in Annie

The role that earned Mosaku her BAFTA and a first Oscar nomination is, fittingly, a character named Annie. Ryan Coogler wrote the part of Hoodoo priestess Annie in Sinners specifically for her. The film stars Michael B. Jordan in a dual role as twins Smoke and Stack, defending their Mississippi hometown from vampires in the 1930s.

Mosaku has spoken openly about how the character changed her. “I found a part of myself in Annie, a part of my hopes, my ancestral power and connection, parts I thought I had lost or tried to dim as an immigrant trying to fit in,” she said in her BAFTA acceptance speech.

She also talked about what the performance meant beyond her own growth. “For me, seeing that response made me realise how lonely I felt and all of a sudden these women were in my life who I’d never met, I felt a kinship to,” she said, referring to Black women who told her they felt seen and valued through her portrayal.

Oscar Night: Nominated, But Not This Time

Mosaku earned her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the 98th Oscars in March. She walked the red carpet in a sparkling emerald green Louis Vuitton gown, but the award went to Amy Madigan for Weapons.

The nomination itself was historic. Mosaku won at the Gothams before her BAFTA triumph made her the favourite for many observers. Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor for Sinners, and the film also took Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Score, confirming Coogler’s vampire musical as one of the year’s defining films.

A Career Built on Grit

This is not Mosaku’s first brush with major recognition. In 2016, she won a BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Gloria Taylor in Damilola, Our Loved Boy, the story of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor who was stabbed on his way home from a library in south London.

Mosaku was 15 when she heard about Taylor’s killing. “I grew up on an estate in Manchester and people I’ve known from school have died in gang trouble and I always thought, if I’d been on a different estate at a different time, it could have been me,” she said during a BBC interview that year.

Her screen credits are wide-ranging. She played Detective Sergeant Catherine Halliday in Luther, Hunter B-15 in Marvel’s Loki, and reprised that role in Deadpool & Wolverine. She has also appeared in Black Mirror and ITV’s Passenger.

A Nigerian Star on the World Stage

As Sinners continues to collect recognition and Coogler’s writing earns its own plaudits, Mosaku’s trajectory points firmly upward. Her BAFTA win, her Oscar nomination, and her willingness to speak honestly about identity, immigration, and ancestral connection have made her one of the most compelling figures in global cinema right now.

For a woman who discovered drama school by Googling the cast of Annie, it has been quite a journey.

Sources: BBC News, Daily Mail, Deadline, Variety, BBC News Pidgin, Town & Country