Known For
Acting
Born
May 11, 1968
Place of Birth
Cardiff, Wales, UK
Credits
48 titles
Rakie Ayola
Biography
Rakie Olufunmilayo Ayola is a Welsh actress. She was born in Cardiff in May 1968, to a Sierra Leonean mother and a Nigerian father, and was raised by her mother's cousin and his wife in the Ely district of the city. She studied at Glan Ely High School, and was a member of the Orbit Youth Theatre, South Glamorgan Youth Theatre, South Glamorgan Youth Choir and the National Youth Theatre of Wales. She went on to attend the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, studying for a three-year acting diploma. In 2023 Rakie Ayola was the 18th recipient of the prestigious BAFTA Cymru Siân Phillips Award. At the same ceremony she also won the Bafta Cymru Best Actress Award for her performance in BBC1 series The Pact Season 2 on which she was an Executive Producer. In 2021 Rakie Ayola won BAFTA Best Supporting Actress for BBC1 film Anthony by Jimmy McGovern. Ayola has appeared in television shows including Kaos, The Pact Season 1, Grace, Shetland, No Offence, Midsomer Murders, Black Mirror, Noughts + Crosses, Doctor Who, Silent Witness and EastEnders, a number of Shakespearean theatrical performances and feature films such as Been So Long, Now Is Good, Great Moments in Aviation, The i Inside, Dredd, and Sahara. She appeared as Kyla Tyson in the BBC medical drama Holby City from its eighth to eleventh series.
Known For
Filmography
Bad Apples
Sylvia
National Theatre at Home: The Authenticator
Abi
Falling
Muriel
Diamond Sky
Suzzane Kirk
Hope Is Lost
Hope (voice)
KAOS
Persephone
Saving Lives in Cardiff
Self - Narrator
Mothers, Missiles and the American President
Narrator
The Pact
DS Holland
Grace
ACC Alison Vosper
Alex Rider
Jo Byrne
Anthony
Gee Walker
Brexit: The Uncivil War
Camilla
Twelfth Night
Executive Producer
Been So Long
Martina
King Lear
Goneril
Flowers
Morag
No Offence
Nora Attah
Code of a Killer
Helena Adarkwa
Under Milk Wood
Voice
Shetland
Olivia Lennox
Now Is Good
Phillippa
Dredd
Chief Judge
Black Mirror
Shelly
Vera
Amber Haleford
My Almost Famous Family
Shalondra
Bargain Hunt Famous Finds
Sahara
Mrs. Nwokolo
Doctor Who
Hostess
The I Inside
Nurse Clayton
Sea of Souls
Yemi
Canterbury Tales
Nicky Constable
Being April
Taneshia
Waking the Dead
Pauline
Murder in Mind
Cally
The Secret Laughter of Women
Talking Drum
Holby City
Kyla Tyson
Maisie Raine
D.C. Helen Tomlin
Midsomer Murders
Alice Winning
Scarlett
Pansy
Ready, Steady, Cook
Self - Guest
Great Moments in Aviation
Gabriel Angel
Nightshift
Soldier Soldier
Bernie Roberts
Screen Two
Gabriel Angel
Question Time
Self - Panellist
Hedgehog
Consultant
Black Church Bay