Nikki Amuka-Bird
Nikki Amuka-Bird (born 1976) is a Nigerian-born British actress of the stage, television, and film. Early life. Amuka-Bird was born in Delta State, Nigeria, where her father still lives. She left there as a young child with her mother and was brought up in England, Lagos and in Antigua. Attending boarding school in Britain, Amuka-Bird originally hoped to be a dancer. That ambition was thwarted by injury: I hurt my back and at that point was deciding what to do university-wise and I thought I would try for drama college because I  knew you could do some dancing there but it didn’t have to take over everything. It was only really when I went to drama college that that world [acting] opened up to me and I fell in love with it and became obsessed like everybody else. She attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). She started her stage career with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). Career. Amuka-Bird's theatrical credits include "Welcome to Thebes" (National Theatre); "Twelfth Night" (Bristol Old Vic, for which she won an Ian Charleson Award nomination in 2004 for playing Viola ); "World Music" (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, and Donmar Warehouse); "Top Girls" (Oxford Stage Company); "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "The Tempest" and "The Servant of Two Masters" (RSC); "" (Tricycle Theatre). Her film credits include "The Omen" (2006 remake), "Cargo", "Almost Heaven" as well as the screen adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's novel "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency". On television, Amuka-Bird has appeared in "Spooks", "The Line of Beauty", "The Last Enemy", "Robin Hood", an episode of "Torchwood", and a recurring role in the reimagined BBC apocalyptic series "Survivors". In 2010 she appeared as Det. Supt Gaynor Jenkins in  the BBC's "Silent Witness". She appeared in "Small Island", the BBC adaptation of Andrea Levy's award-winning novel, broadcast in December 2009. In June 2016 it was announced that she and Phoebe Fox would star in the production of Zadie Smith's novel "NW". It was broadcast on BBC Two on 14 November 2016 and Amuka-Bird received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress. On Christmas Day 2017 she was heard as the voice of the Glass Woman in the "Doctor Who" Christmas Special "Twice Upon a Time" broadcast on BBC One. She is currently playing the role  of Rav Mulclair, Head of Judd Mission Control, in HBO's "Avenue 5". She recently had a few film roles in 2019 for "The Personal History of David Copperfield" as Miss Steerforth and 2021 for "Old" as Patricia, a psychologist with epilepsy. Personal life. She was married to actor Geoffrey Streatfeild from 2003 to 2010.