Wunmi Mosaku is having quite the moment. Starring in Sinners, Black Panther director Ryan Coogler's vampire-slash-gangster movie alongside Michael B. Jordan and Jack O'Connell, she has solidified herself as a star.
And now she's a BAFTA-winning actor for her role in Sinners.
Sinners tells the story of two twin brothers who return to their hometown to try and leave their troubled pasts behind, only to discover a greater evil there. In the supernatural horror, Wunmi will play Annie, a Hoodoo practitioner connected to the spirit world. Ryan Coogler wrote the role of Hoodoo priestess Annie in Sinners especially for Mosaku.
Here's everything you need to know about the BAFTA-winning actor and her incredible acceptance speech.
BAFTA winner
Mosaku took home the award for best supporting actress for the historical crime-drama-turned-horror at the 79th Bafta Film Awards, against Emily Watson for Hamnet, Teyana Taylor for One Battle After Another, and Odessa A'zion for Marty Supreme.
She stunned in a custom Ahluwalia dress that draped beautifully, like a cascade of long fringe. Mosaku, who is pregnant with her second child, thanked her husband, family and daughter as she took to the stage.
“Thank you, BAFTA, for this incredible honour,” she began.
“To my daughter, you are my greatest teacher. I am most proud of you. Everything begins and ends with you.”
She continued: “To my mum, dad, sisters, niece and nephews — I love you all. Mum, thank you for all you have sacrificed, for your protection and your unwavering faith in God’s plan. Much like Aesop’s fable of the sun and the wind, you shone — you beamed love — and gave me the freedom to make my own choices and dare to dream.”
Referencing her role in the critically acclaimed vampire film, Mosaku reflected: “I found a part of myself in Annie — a part of my hopes, my ancestral power and connection. Parts I thought I had lost or tried to dim as an immigrant trying to fit in.
“Through her, I deepened my belief in my potential — my capacity to love and to hope in the darkest moments of grief, and in the face of this harsh world.”
Addressing the film’s American writer and director, Ryan Coogler, she added: “I felt the presence of the ancestors’ pride and joy daily on your set. Your commitment to artistry, truth and humanity is to be treasured and protected at all costs.”
She also paid tribute to her mother and mother-in-law for caring for her daughter, allowing her to pursue her acting career and continue doing what she loves.
What films has Wunmi Mosaku been in?
It's not her first time telling stories in the realms of scares and thrills, though. Wunmi starred as the best friend of abuse victim Alice (Anna Kendrick) in psychological thriller Alice, Darling, and her role in Netflix's His House tells a story of a refugee couple who, after escaping war-torn South Sudan, find evil lurking in their new home in an English town.
She also starred in 2024's Passenger, which saw her play a detective investigating a series of strange crimes, beginning with the disappearance of a young girl. The actor has definitely secured scream queen status, in the cleverest of scary films.
But that's not all. Wunmi also starred opposite Idris Elba in Luther and portrayed B-15 in the Loki TV series and Deadpool & Wolverine. Her first role was in 2009 BBC2 drama Moses Jones, and eight years later her performance as Gloria in Damilola, Our Loved Boy, the mother of a ten-year-old boy named Damilola who was stabbed to death on a London estate in 2000, won her a BAFTA in 2017, making her the second Black woman to win a BAFA in the history of the awards. Wunmi also appeared in Netflix's Black Mirror episode Playtest, The End of the F***ing World and ITV series Vera.
She has spoken out recently about the integral importance of inclusive representation on screen, in particular ensuring that more than one type of woman is cast and viewed as a love interest.
“It's important that everyone feels represented, and it can't be that only a certain type of woman is seen as a love interest in films," she said. "We all need representation no matter what our gender, sexual orientation, or physical-mental ability is. I just feel like everybody deserves to see themselves loved, challenged, and accepted as a hero and as a villain. I want to see all of us represented.”
Where is Wunmi Mosaku from?
The actor was born in Nigeria and emigrated to Manchester when she was a one year old. She graduated from drama school RADA in 2007.
She has talked about struggling at school, and her parents being told to not speak Yaruba at home. “It was because of… I’m gonna say racism," she said in an interview. "All my Nigerian friends had the same thing, but none of my French or Lithuanian friends were told to stop speaking their mother tongue at home. It happened when I was five: I was diagnosed as dyslexic at 18.”
Mosaku also opened up about how important it is to her that her daughter feels connected to her Nigerian heritage.
“It’s very important to me that people know where they’re from, who they’re from," she said. "The people who have influenced my life will always be spoken about: my grandmas, my parents, my cousins– these people all shaped me, so they also indirectly shape her. And as an African American, which she is, she will know that history, the people she is from and what they’ve achieved.”
She's based in Los Angeles, where she lives with her partner and daughter. “There’s a spirit of revolution in America, whether you like it or not,” she has said. “People don’t sit around, they try and push things to change and it can happen very fast.”
We can't wait to see what's next for this Wunmi Mosaku!
