Page 269 - FINAL_Guildhall Media Highlights 2019-2020 Coverage Book

Coel, born Michaela Ewuraba Boakye-Collinson, grew-up with her mother Marion, 52, a mental health liaison
officer, and older sister, Jasmine, 34, in a council estate in Tower Hamlets, east London.

Her parents, both Ghanaian immigrants, had separated before she was born.

Coel has previously spoken of how they were one of only a handful of Black families in the building. It wasn't
until secondary school that she made friends with other Black children, many of them also from immigrant
backgrounds.

Coel in Chewing Gum Dreams at The Shed at the National Theatre. The show originated as a one-woman
production at the Guildhall School of Speech and Drama

Together with these friends, Coel would make up 'stupid songs', perhaps the first hint of her writing career.
Aged 18 Coel joined a dance troupe linked to the Pentecostal church, to which she became devoted.

Coel left London to study political sciences at the University of Birmingham but later dropped out to dedicate

herself to religion. It was through her faith that Coel first experimented with spoken word poetry, writing a
verse about her love of Jesus.

DISCOVERED AT AN OPEN MIC NIGHT

Then in her early 20s, Coel began performing at open mic nights in London. On the circuit she met actor and
playwright Ché Walker, 52, who was struck by her talent and encouraged her to take acting classes.

She took a Walker masterclass at RADA. She enrolled at Guildhall in the autumn of 2009, becoming the first
Black woman accepted at the institution in five years.

Among her former classmates was Paapa Essiedu, who she would later cast as Kwame in I Will Destroy
You.

The pair performed in their final year showcase together in a piece written by Coel.