Michaela Coel says the racism she suffered at her drama school has left her with PTSD.
The I May Destroy you star, who is an Emmy and Bafta Award winning actress, said the bigotry she experienced during her time at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2009, was so deep it left an indelible scar on her.
During an interview with The Telegraph, Coel was told that there is a page dedicated to her on the college’s website celebrating her as a successful graduate. She replied: "Wow. That’s jokes. Okay.
“That’s interesting. I’m not gonna lie to you, I’ve got so much PTSD from my time in drama school I’ve never looked back. I genuinely find that is a source of DON’T GO BACK for me."
“I know other people go back to their schools and do things," the Black Panther star continued. "That’s how I know my experience in school was very different to other people, because I am not the one to walk through the doors again. Anyone who went to that school? Meet me over here.”
When asked if she’d like Guildhall to remove her image from the website, she said it was a tricky question to answer as she didn’t knows if her picture may encourage others to go there and she didn’t “really want to make people do anything or stop people [from] doing anything.”
She explained: “Sh***y as my time there was, I love the person I am today and I am a collection of every experience I’ve had, both fortunate and unfortunate. So, do I regret going there? That’s a complex question."
Back in 2020, the school, which also boasts the likes Daniel Craig, Ewan McGregor, and Paapa Essiedu among its past students, commissioned an independent review into discrimination experienced by students, which found there was a culture of racism that saw several black students called the N-word and being "suppressed" by white tutors.
Coel, who was born in East London to Ghanaian parents, along with Essiedu, who recently starred in acclaimed West End play,The Effect at the National Theatre, received an apology from the college last year for the “appalling” racism they experienced while they were students.
A spokesperson for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, which is considered one of the top 10 performing arts institutions in the world, said: “Guildhall School apologises unreservedly for the racism experienced by Paapa Essiedu, Michaela Coel and other alumni whilst they were studying at the school. The experiences he shares were appalling and unacceptable.”
The pair were the only two black students in the group.
Essiedu, who was the Royal Shakespeare Company’s first black Hamlet in 2016, was told by a teacher, who called him the N word while improvising in a play, that he did not enunciate clearly and sounded like his mouth was “full of chocolate cake”.
