# Ncuti Gatwa

Mizero Ncuti Gatwa (English: /ˈ(n)ʃuːti ˈɡætwɑː/ (N)SHOO-tee GAT-wah; born 15 October 1992) is a Rwandan and Scottish actor. Beginning his career on stage at the Dundee Repertory Theatre, he was a nominee for an Ian Charleson Award for his performance as Mercutio in a 2014 production of Romeo & Juliet at HOME. Gatwa's screen breakthrough came portraying Eric Effiong in the Netflix drama television series Sex Education (2019–2023). He had supporting roles in the film Barbie (2023) and the television series Masters of the Air (2024), and rose to further prominence as the fifteenth incarnation of the Doctor in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who since 2023.

## Early life

Mizero Ncuti Gatwa was born in Nyarugenge, Kigali, Rwanda, on 15 October 1992. His father, Tharcisse Gatwa, from Rwanda's Karongi District, is a journalist.
Gatwa's family escaped from Rwanda during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and settled in Scotland. They lived in Oxgangs in Edinburgh, and moved to Dunfermline when he was 15. Gatwa attended Boroughmuir High School and Dunfermline High School before moving to Glasgow to study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Acting in 2013. While studying, he worked at the LGBTQ+ club The Polo Lounge, handing out flyers and later becoming a go-go dancer. The Conservatoire awarded him an honorary doctorate at the class of 2022 graduation ceremony.

## Career
### 2013–2021: Early stage work and breakthrough with Sex Education

After graduating, Gatwa was granted a position in the Dundee Repertory Theatre acting graduation scheme where he performed in several productions including David Greig's Victoria. Around this time, Gatwa was attacked by three strangers in the street who fractured his jaw; this was fixed with titanium. He had a brief role in the 2014 sitcom Bob Servant, which was also set and filmed in Dundee. In 2014, Gatwa received a Commendation at the Ian Charleson Awards for his 2014 performance of Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet at Home, Manchester.
In 2015, he appeared in a supporting role in the miniseries Stonemouth, an adaptation of the 2012 novel of the same name. That same year, he performed in the Kneehigh Theatre's production of 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, which was adapted from Michael Morpurgo's The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, about a large-scale rehearsal for the D-Day landings in 1944 that resulted in numerous fatalities. Gatwa played Demetrius in the 2016 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare's Globe directed by Emma Rice.
In May 2018, Gatwa was cast in the Netflix comedy-drama series Sex Education as Eric Effiong; the show was released in 2019 and garnered critical acclaim. For five months prior to this casting, he had been homeless after running out of savings, and had couch surfed. Gatwa received praise for his portrayal of Eric from critics, particularly for how his character was not relegated to the cliché of "gay or black best friend slash sidekick stock character". He has earned numerous accolades for the role, including a BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Actor in Television in 2020, and three BAFTA Television Award nominations for Best Male Comedy Performance, one in 2020, 2021 and 2022 consecutively.

### 2022–present: Doctor Who and rise to prominence

In April 2022, Gatwa was cast in Greta Gerwig's Barbie. He performed an excerpt of Romeo and Juliet with Mei Mac at the 2023 Coronation Concert, and topped the Radio Times's TV 100 power list the same year.
In May 2022, it was announced that Gatwa had been cast in Doctor Who as a new incarnation of the show's protagonist, the Doctor, succeeding Jodie Whittaker in the role. Gatwa, who was cast in February, was the first black actor to lead the series, the fourth Scottish actor, and the first actor born outside the United Kingdom to do so. He was expected to take over the role in the third and final of the 2022 specials in October 2022, but the final Thirteenth Doctor story "The Power of the Doctor" revealed that Gatwa would play the Fifteenth Doctor, with David Tennant (who had previously played the Tenth Doctor) returning to play the Fourteenth Doctor. He debuted in "The Giggle", the third of the 60th anniversary specials, on 9 December 2023, and starred in his first full episode, "The Church on Ruby Road" on Christmas Day 2023, which was followed by the show's fourteenth series. His performance in Doctor Who has earned praise from critics. Many writers for The Independent called Gatwa's acting "interstellar" and "mesmerising". Naina Bajekal of Time magazine believed that Gatwa was "bringing Doctor Who into a new era". Mary McNamara of Los Angeles Times called Gatwa "an absolute delight" and wrote that his "unbridled exuberance makes this an easy sell and serves as a data bridge between new viewers and old." He was nearly cast in the Jesse Eisenberg film A Real Pain as Rwandan genocide survivor Eloge, but scheduling conflicts with Doctor Who led to Kurt Egyiawan being cast in the role instead.
In April 2024, it was announced that Gatwa was cast as Algernon Moncrieff in The Importance of Being Earnest in the Lyttleton Theatre at the National Theatre, London from November 2024 until January 2025.

## Personal life

Gatwa publicly came out as queer in an August 2023 interview with Elle magazine, having previously avoided discussing his sexuality, in spite of popular speculation, for his "safety and mental health." In the interview, Gatwa noted that he preferred not to label himself, and that he had been inspired by both his work on Sex Education and an encounter with a Rwandan woman at Manchester Pride some years prior, having "never met another queer Rwandan person before". He later stated that he had "never been in the closet, you know. I just never talked about it. The work I do is what's important."
In 2024, Gatwa responded to some backlash to his casting in Doctor Who because of his race, stating that "There's so much white mediocrity that gets celebrated, and Black people, we have to be absolutely flawless to get half of [that] anyway. So, I'm slowly training myself out of that and being like, 'No shit.' You deserve love just for existing."
Gatwa enjoys astrology, and is a Libra Sun.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2019 | Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans | Timidius | |
| 2021 | The Last Letter from Your Lover | Nick | |
| 2023 | Barbie | Artist Ken | |
| 2025 | The Roses | | Filming |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2014 | Bob Servant | Male Customer | Episode: "The Van" |
| 2015 | Stonemouth | Dougie | 2 episodes |
| 2019–2023 | Sex Education | Eric Effiong | Main role, 32 episodes |
| 2023 | An Adventure in Space and Time | Fifteenth Doctor | Cameo appearance; re-edit of 2013 film |
| 2023–present | Doctor Who | Fifteenth Doctor | Lead role |
| 2024 | Masters of the Air | 2nd Lt. Robert Daniels | Miniseries |
| 2024 | Tales of the TARDIS | Fifteenth Doctor | Episode: "Pyramids of Mars" |
| 2024 | BBC Proms | Fifteenth Doctor | Episode: "Doctor Who at the Proms" |

### Stage

| Year | Title | Role | Venue |
| 2013 | Victoria | Gavin/Callum/Patrick | Dundee Rep |
| 2013 | Hecuba | Polydorus | Dundee Rep |
| 2013 | The BFG | Sam/Head of Army/Childchewer | Dundee Rep |
| 2014 | And Then There Were None | Anthony James Marston | Dundee Rep |
| 2014 | Cars and Boys | Robert | Dundee Rep |
| 2014 | Woman in Mind | Tony | Dundee Rep / Birmingham Rep |
| 2014 | Romeo & Juliet | Mercutio | HOME |
| 2015 | Shakespeare in Love | Wabash | Noël Coward Theatre |
| 2015 | Lines | Valentine | The Yard Theatre |
| 2015–2017 | 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips | Adolphus | Shakespeare's Globe |
| 2016 | A Midsummer Night's Dream | Demetrius | Shakespeare's Globe |
| 2017 | Trouble in Mind | John Nevins | Print Room at the Coronet |
| 2017–2018 | The Claim | Serge | Crucible Theatre |
| 2018 | The Rivals | Captain Jack Absolute | Watermill Theatre |
| 2024–2025 | The Importance of Being Earnest | Algernon Moncrief | Lyttelton Theatre, National Theatre, London |

### Audio

| Year | Title | Role | Production | Notes |
| 2022 | Lusus | Christopher | BBC Radio 4 | Episode: "Khar Darakh" |
| 2023 | David Copperfield | David Copperfield | Audible | |
| 2025 | Gatsby in Harlem | Jay Gatsby | BBC Radio 3 | |

### Video games

| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
| 2022 | Grid Legends | Valentin Manzi | Voice and motion capture | |

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
| 2014 | Ian Charleson Awards | Best Performance in a Play | Romeo & Juliet | Nominated |
| 2019 | MTV Movie Awards | Best Breakthrough Performance | Sex Education | Nominated |
| 2019 | MTV Movie Awards | Best Kiss (with Connor Swindells) | Sex Education | Nominated |
| 2019 | BAFTA Scotland Awards | Best Actor in Television | Sex Education | Nominated |
| 2019 | Edinburgh International Television Festival | Best Breakthrough Talent | Sex Education | Nominated |
| 2020 | Newport Beach Film Festival | Breakthrough Artist Honouree | Sex Education | Won |
| 2020 | Broadcasting Press Guild Awards | Best Actor | Sex Education | Nominated |
| 2020 | Broadcasting Press Guild Awards | Best Breakthrough | Sex Education | Won |
| 2020 | Royal Television Society Awards | Comedy Performance (Male) | Sex Education | Won |
| 2020 | Young Scot Awards | Entertainment | Sex Education | Won |
| 2020 | BAFTA Television Awards | Best Male Comedy Performance | Sex Education | Nominated |
| 2020 | BAFTA Scotland Awards | Best Actor in Television | Sex Education | Won |
| 2020 | Rose d'Or | Performance of the Year | Sex Education | Won |
| 2021 | BAFTA Television Awards | Best Male Comedy Performance | Sex Education | Nominated |
| 2022 | National Comedy Awards | Outstanding Supporting Role | Sex Education | Won |
| 2022 | Critics' Choice Television Awards | Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series | Sex Education | Nominated |
| 2022 | NME Awards | Best TV Actor | Sex Education | Nominated |
| 2022 | BAFTA Television Awards | Best Male Comedy Performance | Sex Education | Nominated |
| 2022 | BAFTA Scotland Awards | Best Actor in Television | Sex Education | Nominated |
| 2022 | BAFTA Scotland Awards | Audience Award | Sex Education | Nominated |
| 2024 | BAFTA Cymru | Actor | Doctor Who | Won |
| 2025 | Critics Choice Awards | Best Actor in a Drama Series | Doctor Who | Nominated |