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Michaela Coel will work with Succession creator Jesse Armstrong on a new TV drama series, it has been announced.
It marks Coel’s first screenwriting project four years after she won two Baftas and an Emmy for her searing sexual consent drama series I May Destroy You, which she wrote and starred in.
The 36-year-old actor and writer has returned to work with both HBO and BBC on the new series First Day On Earth, which will see Coel write, star and serve as an executive producer.
Coel – who was born in east London to Ghanaian parents – will play novelist Henri, who is navigating relationship and work issues when she decides to take a job on a film in Ghana, her family’s home country.
Henri also views her trip as an opportunity to connect with her heritage – and her estranged father.
The other executive producers include Armstrong, Phil Clarke and Roberto Troni for Various Artists Limited (VAL), Jo McClellan, a BBC commissioning editor, and former BBC director of drama Piers Wenger, who works for A24.
Coel said: “Thanks to all of their combined taste, care and expertise, I feel our show is in great hands.
“The process of creating First Day On Earth thus far has been a beautifully intimate experience and I am excited to embark on the next phase to eventually offer this as another televisual gift for anyone willing to accompany Henri on what will be a wild odyssey.”
In Ghana, Henri will encounter a job and father who do not “turn out the way she expected” along with “danger and hypocrisy”, the BBC said.
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She will also “form new friendships, lose her illusions, and create a new sense of identity – one that might leave her stronger, but could also break her”.
Announcing the series ahead of the Edinburgh TV Festival on Tuesday (20 August), Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, said: “Michaela is one of those exceptional talents whose work I have long admired.
“I May Destroy You is one of the reasons I wanted to join the BBC. In First Day on Earth, Michaela has created another unmissable series – truly original, heartfelt, hilarious, poetic storytelling and told in a way that only Michaela can. I can’t wait for everyone to see it.”
Executive producers Phil Clarke and Roberto Troni for Various Artists Limited (VAL), said: “Yet again, Michaela delivers a highly original, singular story that explores the relationship between England and Ghana via a second generation British-Ghanaian woman who takes up the opportunity to return to the homeland of her parents and finds herself encountering a cast of memorable characters and experiences that force her to face some painful home truths.
“As ever with Michaela, it is by turns shocking, funny and unforgettable, and done in her inimitable style.”
Coel rose to fame after writing and starring in E4 sitcom Chewing Gum, for which she won a Bafta for best female comedy performance in 2016.
She then found critical acclaim for I May Destroy You, which was inspired by her own experience of sexual assault. The show follows Arabella, a London-based TV writer who is struggling to meet a deadline as she deals with the trauma of being drugged and raped in a nightclub.
It is loosely based on Coel’s experience of being raped while she was writing the second series of Chewing Gum – and in 2018, she shared her experience while giving a James McTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.
The show has been praised for breaking many social taboos, and for its honest portrayal of consent and the reality of life after being raped.
It is also widely recognised for lifting the lid on stealthing – the removal of a condom without consent – which is classified as rape in the UK.
The series was also overwhelmingly praised for destigmatising period sex, with one particular – consensual – sex scene showing Arabella and a male character Biaggio openly talking about her period blood before intercourse.
Coel is also known for the dark anthology series Black Mirror, drama Black Earth Rising, musical romance Been So Long and superhero movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. She is the author of Misfits: A Personal Manifesto, which recounts some of her experiences of sexual assault depicted in I May Destroy You.
In 2022, she was honoured for "fearless" advocacy through her work, both on and off camera with the Jane Fonda Humanitarian Award at a Women in Film ceremony.
Filming for 10-part series First Day On Earth will begin later this year. The cast is yet to be announced.
