Wunmi Mosaku has been getting all the glory this award’s season, having received nods for her role as Hoodoo priestess Annie in Sinners.
On Tuesday, it was announced the Nigerian-British actress, 39, had earned the Best Supporting Actress nomination at the BAFTAs, following on from her nods at the Oscars and Actor Awards, formerly known as the SAG Awards.
Wunmi will compete against Carey Mulligan (The Ballad Of Wallis Island); Emily Watson (Hamnet); Odessa A’Zion (Marty Supreme); Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Sentimental Value) and Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another).
She stars in the horror movie – which has earned a record breaking 16 Academy Awards nods – alongside Michael B. Jordan.
But her rise to fame has been far from plain sailing, having grown up on a council estate in Manchester with her family.
Her drive for acting all started when she fell in love with the 1980s musical Annie, which she credits for changing her ‘whole life’.
Pregnant Wunmi Mosaku, 39, has been getting all the glory this award’s season, having received an incredible three nods for her role as Hoodoo priestess Annie in Sinners
The actress has earned the Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Oscars, BAFTAs and Actor Awards, formerly known as the SAG Awards (pictured as Annie in Sinners)
But her rise to fame has been far from plain sailing, having grown up on a council estate in Manchester with her family (pictured in Channel 4’s I Am Slave in 2010)
With no idea how to pursue a career in film industry, Wunmi looked up the cast of the musical where she noticed actor Albert Finney went to a drama school nearby.
Wunmi went onto audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art – a choice that changed everything.
‘I watched Annie every single day after school,’ Wunmi said during a recent interview on The Graham Norton Show.
‘I said to my mum and sister ‘I don’t want to do maths and economics, I think I want to act’. They were like ‘how do you do that’ and I was like ‘I don’t know’.’
After researching into how the cast of Annie got their big break, Wunmi added: ‘He [Albert] went to Rada [Royal Academy of Dramatic Art].
‘That’s the first time I ever heard of drama school so I auditioned for Rada and got in. It changed my whole life. I will love that film forever.’
Wunmi was born in Zaria, Nigeria, to parents who were professors – her father in architecture and her mother in chemistry – and moved to Manchester aged one.
She initially struggled at school and her parents were advised not to speak Yoruba at home. ‘It was because of… I’m gonna say racism. 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.’
Her drive for acting all started when she fell in love with the 1980s musical Annie, which she credits for changing her ‘whole life’
With no idea how to pursue a career in film industry, Wunmi looked up the cast of the musical where she noticed actor Albert Finney went to Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and she applied
Ten years after graduating from Rada, she won a BAFTA in 2017 playing the mother of the murdered Damilola Taylor in BBC drama Damilola, Our Loved Boy
Wunmi was in Manchester Girls Choir for 11 years and once dreamed of being an opera singer after a school visit to see Madame Butterfly.
Ten years after graduating from Rada, she won a BAFTA in 2017 playing the mother of the murdered Damilola Taylor in BBC drama Damilola, Our Loved Boy.
Wunmi’s previous roles include 1970s black-activist drama Guerrilla, in which she starred alongside good friend Idris Elba.
She also starred as Joy in BBC Two’s Moses Jones, Holly Lawson in ITV’s Vera, Det Sgt Catherine Halliday in BBC’s Luther and former Met Police detective Riya Ajunwa in ITV’s Passenger.
The film star also played Dr Verity Willis, aka Hunter B-15, in the Marvel series Loki before she reprised the role in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Now, Wunmi is up for three more awards – her biggest achievement in her career to date.
Ryan Coogler’s horror movie Sinners is nominated for a staggering 16 Academy Awards, the most of any motion picture in history.
The record was previously held by Titanic, All About Eve and La La Land, which earned 14 nominations apiece in a three-way tie.
She also starred as Holly Lawson in ITV’s Vera (pictured)
Wunmi has landed successful TV stints over the years and is now being recognised (pictured in Loki)
Sinners stars Michael B. Jordan in a dual role as twin brothers with a criminal past who find themselves faced with a vampire menace in the Jim Crow South.
Showered with acclaim, the movie emerged as yet another box office success for the Black Panther director and has now landed him a spot in the Oscars pantheon.
But becoming this year’s award’s season darling isn’t the only joy Wunmi has received.
The actress announced she is pregnant with her second child as she debuted her baby bump on the red carpet at the Golden Globes this year.
The Sinners star looked incredible in a sweeping yellow gown that highlighted her growing bump at The Beverly Hilton.
In a piece published to coincide with her red carpet moment, she told Vogue: ‘In my Nigerian culture, we don’t really announce this kind of news. It’s meant to be protected.
‘Everything in me resists sharing it publicly – not because I’m not grateful or joyful, but because this feels like one of the few things that truly belongs to me.’
She added: ‘I’ll be in the public eye for the coming weeks as we excitedly take our seats amongst our peers, and I will be doing it with an ever-growing bump.’
She stars in the horror movie – which has earned a record breaking 16 Academy Awards nods – alongside Michael B. Jordan (pictured)
Wunmi, who is married to her LA-born talent agent husband, whom she prefers not to name, are already parents to their daughter.
The pregnant film star is also launching a clothing line catering to mothers, called Iyadé – which means ‘mother has arrived’ in Yoruba.
Born from my own lived experience, it’s about honoring bodies in transition – offering comfort, dignity, and beauty through every phase of this journey’, she told Hollywood Reporter.
‘Centering and celebrating the creators who make life possible.’
