Wunmi Mosaku is acting and articulating history, identity, and untold truths. With every role, she carries the weight of stories often left in the margins, transforming them into riveting centrepieces of modern cinema and television.

Olawumi Mosaku was born on July 31, 1986 in Zaria, Nigeria. She was the daughter of Yoruba professors who valued intellect and culture. Her family’s move to Manchester, England, when she was just a year old, set her on a path of blending Nigerian culture with British upbringing. Her early years were filled with music, as she spent over a decade singing with the Manchester Girls’ Choir. She attended Trinity Church of England High School and Xaverian Sixth Form College for her secondary education. Though her father eventually returned to Nigeria and her mother built a business in the UK, Mosaku’s foundation remained solid, rooted in perseverance and art.

She honed her craft at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), graduating in 2007 with a BA in Acting. Her professional stage debut followed that same year at the Arcola Theatre in a production of Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s The Great Theatre of the World. By 2008, she was already working under the direction of Rupert Goold in Rough Crossings. Roles in The Vertical Hour (2010) and Truth and Reconciliation (2011) at the Royal Court Theatre further signalled her range and promise.

In 2008, Wunmi Mosaku became one of the featured faces in the UNDEREXPOSED exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, designed to raise the profile of black role models and celebrates the talent that exists among the Black British community. Her portrait even graced the streets of Peckham, London, as part of the exhibition. Her breakout performance as Joy in the BBC Two miniseries Moses Jones (2009) marked her as a rising star, earning her Best Actress in a Miniseries at the Rome Fiction Festival. She also featured on the front cover of Screen International magazine June–July 2009, as one of the UK Stars of Tomorrow

By 2010, Mosaku was gaining global attention. Her haunting portrayal of Malia, a Sudanese girl kidnapped and forced into slavery, in I Am Slave earned her a string of accolades such as Best Actress at the Birmingham Black Film Festival, Best Onscreen performance at the Cultural Diversity Awards, and Best Female performance at the Screen Nation Awards. Her performance moved audiences and forced them to confront realities often ignored.

Between 2011 and 2012, she starred as Holly Lawson in the ITV series Vera. Wunmi Mosaku was featured in Nylon Magazine‘s 2011 Young Hollywood issue. In 2015, she portrayed Quentina, a traffic warden caught in London’s gentrifying pulse, in the BBC adaptation of Capital, based on John Lanchester’s novel. A year later, she captivated audiences with a chilling performance in Playtest, part of the acclaimed Black Mirror anthology.

The accolades kept coming. In 2017, Mosaku won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Gloria Taylor in the TV film Damilola, Our Loved Boy.  She joined the iconic series Luther in 2019 and, by 2020, starred in HBO’s Lovecraft Country as Ruby Baptiste, a performance as layered and powerful as the show’s themes of race and resistance.

That same year, she headlined His House, a British horror film that blurred the line between supernatural fear and refugee trauma. Her performance as Rial was a masterclass in emotional precision, earning her a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress and a BIFA win for Best Performance an Actress in a British Independent Film. In her hands, pain became art and every silence spoke volumes.

Mosaku’s reach expanded into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) television series with her role as Hunter B-15 in Loki (2021), a character reprised in Deadpool & Wolverine (2024). Her presence in the MCU is about substance and diversity. She does not play characters; she becomes the storm within them. Whether she’s controlling time or unearthing hidden truths, Mosaku’s performances resonate like thunder in still air.

In 2025, Wunmi Mosaku took on the role of Annie in Sinners, a horror epic rooted in ancestral magic and modern dread. As a Hoodoo priestess, her gaze alone told stories of power, pain, and protection. The film, directed by the visionary behind Black Panther, broke records and redefined genre cinema, making it the decade’s biggest original box office opener.

Despite an industry still struggling with representation, Mosaku is not waiting for permission. She’s carving out space with grace and grit, wearing her cultural pride like a second skin. Her performances are quiet storms controlled, purposeful, and unforgettable.

As Afrobeats reshapes the world’s musical heartbeat and Nollywood inches closer to global prominence, Wunmi Mosaku is proof that this African wave is more than trend; it is transformation. Her voice in every role she takes builds a legacy of dignity, defiance, and depth.