Michaela Coel

Michaela Coel: Biography in Details

Who is Michaela Coel?

Michaela Coel is a British actress, director, producer, writer, and also a singer.

She was named the most influential person of African or African Caribbean heritage in the United Kingdom in the 15th annual Powerlist.

Who are the parents of Michaela Coel?

The actress was born on October 1st, 1987 in London, England, UK. Her full name is  Michaela Boakye Collinson. Michaela is of a Black ethnic group with Ghanaian roots.

She was born to Ghanaian parents. Michaela was brought up in Tower Hamlets by her mother. Her mother was one of the devout members of the Pentecostal church. She used to work for NHS as a mental health expert.

Her parents were never married. However, her father has always stayed geographically and emotionally close throughout her childhood.

Michaela grew up with her older sister Jasmine Coel.

Education

The actress studied at Catholic schools in East London. She shared that she was bullied by other pupils during her primary school. It was caused as she was the only black pupil in her age cohort.

Michaela then attended Birmingham University. She studied English Literature and Theology from 2007 to 2009.

She was then transferred to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Michaela was the first black woman enrolled in five years there.

Michaela Coel even won the Laurence Olivier Bursary Award which helped her fund her schooling. The actress graduated in 2012.

Michaela Coel: Career, Professional life

Michaela began her career performing poetry in early 2006. Likely she was encouraged by actor, playwright, and director Ché Walker to apply to Guildhall.

Coel has performed at Wembley Arena, Bush Theatre, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and others as a poet. Moreover, she was well known by the name Michaela The Poet. In the year 2009 Coel joined the Talawa Theatre Company summer school program TYTE.

She also released an album entitled Fixing Barbie and then We’re the Losers. Choel’s breakthrough was appearing in the play Chewing Gum Dreams in 2012. After that, the actress landed the lead role in the Channel 4 drama Top Boy.

She has written and also appeared in the sitcom called Chewing Gum. She made it inspiring from her play Chewing Gum Dreams in 2015. Moreover, she appeared in BBC One drama London Spy the same year. The next year, she played Lilyhot in the E4 sci-fi comedy-drama The Aliens.

Chewing Gum’s second series came in January 2017. Talking about her other works, she appeared in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), Black Earth Rising(2018), Been So Long(2018).

Coel created, wrote, produced, co-directed, and starred in the comedy-drama series I May Destroy You in 2020. The actress also appeared in British Vogue’s 2020 list of influential women.

Just in July 2021, Michaela Coel was cast in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Michaela Coel: Salary, Net Worth

The actress has amassed a net worth of around $2 million from her career as of 2023. Likewise talking about her salary, she earns $273.97 per day and hourly around $11.42.

The actress also produced her own movie and must receive a good earning from it too.

Is Michaela Coel involved in any rumors and controversies?

For her show, I May Destroy You, Michaela turned down a $1 million offer from Netflix. The star spoke about that incident and shared the reason behind it.

As Michaela told, she asked the Netflix development executive but they weren’t able to retain any percentage of the copyright for the show that she created.

After that Michaela Coel pitched I May Destroy You to BBC in 2017. The actress didn’t only land the deal They also offered her the provision to seat at the table on the production side with her full creative control and the rights to the work.

Body Measurements: Height, Weight

The actress has an average height of 5 ft and 4 inches and weighs around 57 kg. Her eye color is dark brown and likely her hair color is black.

Social media

Michaela Coel has accumulated over 58K followers on her Instagram account. And she joined Twitter in Dec 2015 and has more than 259K followers now.

Also, get to know about Genevieve Kang, Ryan Hawke, Casey Deidrick, and Teryl Rothery.

Michaela Coel's Birthday Dates