For many of the people coming through Bafta’s unassuming front door today, it will feel as though they have arrived at a school reunion. There are old friends to greet and catch up with and familiar corridors to walk down, while each new room they enter holds memories of a life-changing and formative time. We are at the gathering to mark 10 years of the Bafta Breakthrough new talent initiative – now in partnership with Netflix – which since 2013 has guided more than 200 people from the film, TV and gaming industry through a head-spinning year of pitch meetings, mentoring opportunities (each participant can ask for introductions to up to five mentors taken from Bafta members) and wild parties. Yes, there were plenty of glitzy dos and starstruck moments but Bafta, AKA the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, is much more than just an annual award show. Here seven of Bafta Breakthrough’s most illustrious alumni reflect on the scheme and the careers they went on to build.
Susan Wokoma (2017)
Peckham-born Wokoma has been acting since she was 17, but is probably best known as Michaela Coel’s Bible-bashing sister in Chewing Gum and Edith in Netflix’s Enola Holmes. She is writing and directing her debut film
What I remember the most was actually coming here, to the Bafta building, and no one telling me to leave. Just feeling as if I’d properly arrived in my industry! When I did it, it was sponsored by Burberry and that meant a big old launch party and I was lent this gorgeous pink velvet trenchcoat to wear. I felt like Elizabeth Taylor.
People look at the entertainment industry and think there’s a lot of parties, but actually, when you’re a jobbing actor, there’s not that much pomp and celebration. You’re just doing the job or trying to get the job, or not getting the job. So to have a year where a whole institution is going, “What do you want?” is amazing.
What I wanted was to start writing my own work. I kept saying: “I just want to know how the sausage is made. I know that I’m always in the sausage, but how did I get there?” People in TV, they would always say: “Oh, you can never get films made in the UK.” And I’m like, “Well … we do get films made, because I watch them … ?” So it was really specifically through Bafta that I was meeting people in film and getting constructive advice.
I think when you feel like you belong, you start thinking about what you’re capable of, what you can contribute. If you don’t really belong somewhere, you stay in your box. But if you feel like, “Yeah, OK, I do deserve to be here,” Then you start thinking, “OK … what else can I do?”
Malachi Kirby (2016)
Having got his start playing “Gang Leader” in an episode of Casualty, Kirby won acclaim for lead roles in the 2016 Roots, Black Mirror and Steve McQueen’s Small Axe film series. He can next be seen in the Neil Gaiman adaptation Anansi Boys
When I started out, there were only really two people I wanted to speak to: either David Oyelowo or Denzel [Washington]. And I think David was more accessible! [Laughs] He’s been incredible and he’s become a friend. He helped me feel less lonely, just in terms of finding my place in this industry and understanding how to navigate it with integrity. I didn’t feel like there were a lot of people around me who held that as a value. Or even thought it was possible. So it was great to hear that he had that same mindset and had been successful.
When I first started, as an introverted kid from a south London council estate, people were telling me I needed to kiss my own arse and say that I’m the best thing ever and just be something that I was not, and I’m still not. I tried it in one particular meeting and felt sick. I made the decision then that if I couldn’t be myself, I shouldn’t be doing this. So that’s the advice I’d give: there’s a space for you. It may not be one that exists yet – it may be one that you have to create – but there is a space here.
Niamh Algar (2019)
Irish actor Algar’s most noted projects include her turn in the crime drama Calm With Horses, Shane Meadows’ The Virtues and as the lead in the 2021 horror Censor, directed by 2021 Bafta Breakthrough artist Prano Bailey-Bond
I come from a small town in Ireland, and no one in my county had worked as a professional actor. There was a cinema in town which had 50 seats and Titanic played there for 18 months. Like, no other film came in; they just sold that bad boy out! I was too young, but my mum eventually sneaked me in, and seeing that movie became a very rooted, core memory which sparked this thought that “Gosh, maybe I could do that?” It was the first time a performance had made me cry.
Then last year, because of Bafta Breakthrough, I found myself presenting Kate Winslet with a Bafta. I was like: “My child self would kick me if I didn’t tell her.” So backstage afterwards I said: “Kate, I hope you don’t mind, but seeing you in Titanic was so important to me … ” And then she started getting emotional and it felt like a full-circle moment. Like, “Now I’ve made you cry!”
Rose Ayling-Ellis (2022)
Ayling-Ellis made TV history as the first deaf Strictly contestant and the first regular deaf character to appear on BBC soap EastEnders. She is working on her own sitcom about two deaf girls on the London dating scene
Bafta put me in touch with Alice Seabright [writer on Sex Education and Chloe] and she was the one who said I’d got a writer in me. I’ve just never really had the confidence, because at school I was always “the deaf one”; I was always taken out of the class and the focus was on what I couldn’t do. But I came up with lots of ideas, and I wanted to collaborate with writers. Alice was like, “No, I think you could write.” That got me all inspired, so I went home and I did it!
When a disabled person goes to work – not just in this industry, anywhere – it takes a long time to get promoted, because you’re just grateful to be in the room, even though you want more. So a lot of disabled people get stuck in the same job for ages. But with this, when I was meeting with people, they were all saying how nice it is to meet me. And I’m like, “Er … no? I’m honoured to meet you.” It made me realise I do underestimate myself sometimes. Even today, these other people here, they’re so cool. And what’s really mad is that I’ve already met half of them and we’re friends! That is a bit bonkers.
Amir El-Masry (2020)
A chance meeting with the Doctor Zhivago star and fellow countryman Omar Sharif launched the career of the Egyptian-British actor El-Masry. He’s since won further recognition as a taciturn asylum-seeker in Limbo and a young Mohamed Al Fayed in Netflix’s The Crown
Being associated with Bafta has definitely opened doors for me. It doesn’t give you roles, but it shines a spotlight on you for casting directors. I’ve been seen for a lot more leading roles than if things had been left to a producer’s imagination. I remember meeting Spike Jonze on Zoom while he was making sushi in Hawaii. I was like – no social inhibitions, whatsoever – “You know, I would love to work with you, maybe?” He was probably still focusing on Jackass but “Don’t ask, don’t get” is the most valuable advice I got through this!
When I came into this acting thing, there was never someone [about whom] I could say: “That’s me in 10 years.” Probably the closest, but he’s a different ethnicity, is Riz Ahmed. So that was something I kept saying when I joined Bafta Breakthrough. I did meet someone who I am still in close contact with and is now like an older brother/mentor: [the French-Algerian director of ’71 and Top Boy] Yann Demange. To have Bafta connect you puts everyone at ease. This industry is all about trust, and they’ll more likely trust an organisation like Bafta than a random person going: “Ah, have you met Amir? Can you have a meeting with him?”
Ruth Madeley (2016)
Bolton-born Madeley trained as a screenwriter before finding her way in front of the camera. She is the Bafta-nominated star of Don’t Take My Baby, Russell T Davies’s Years and Years and the BBC film Then Barbara Met Alan
I was at the very beginning of my career when this all happened. I’d been nominated [for Don’t Take My Baby] but then no one knew who I was – why would they? And then in the same year I got the Bafta Breakthrough and it really cemented my desire to be in this industry.
What I learned about myself is how ambitious I am. I want to keep learning and getting better. I’ve been very fortunate to have some disabled people who I’ve looked up to in the past, people like Mat Fraser and Liz Carr, but they weren’t on TV nearly enough. So, for me, the driving force is increasing disability representation.
There were pinch-me moments during my Bafta year, like Kim Cattrall hosting a dinner and going to Kensington Palace to have a chat with the future king! But every point has felt special, because I am just a very normal girl from the north of England and I just feel really lucky to do what I’m doing. The biggest privilege is when I meet a younger disabled person who’s seen my work and says I want to do what you do. That’s worth anything to me – sod Kensington Palace.
Lydia West (2021)
West made her name in Years and Years and It’s a Sin, then had her big-screen debut this year in the Céline Dion-worshipping romcom Love Again. Next up it’s the Channel 4 sitcom Big Mood
There were lots of events and meetups arranged with my group, but that year I was travelling and working a lot, so I missed a lot of it. That’s the problem with breaking through. You’re very busy, aren’t you?
I have two mentors. Will Poulter is kind of my age and we had an amazing few conversations about how he manages public pressure, AKA fame; how he shuts out all that noise. And then Suranne Jones, who’s been working a lot to promote safe sets and mental health on set. Before 2021 I didn’t have a lot of experience on set, so I didn’t really have any bad experiences, but I did see things from other actors that I didn’t really admire. Like people being offensive to me, or mainly to other people in lesser positions of power. Before I would have been like, “Oh no, I don’t want to get fired, so I won’t speak up.” Suranne taught me about being kind but being assertive, setting your boundaries around what you’re willing to do and not do, and when you see other people behaving badly, speaking up. That’s what it’s all about.
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