British Actors You Should Know: Adjoa Andoh

You may best know prolific stage and screen actor Adjoa Andoh from her role as a presiding member of Bridgerton’s ton, but offscreen, she’s more like British acting royalty. Born in 1963 and raised as the only Black girl in her small southern England town, Andoh’s life experiences have made race and gender vital to her work. Her English mother and Ghanan father instilled a love of music and performance in her that simmered under the surface of her young adulthood. Andoh initially pursued a career in law, even enrolling in law school before realizing that acting was her true calling.  

Andoh: “I joined a Black women's group in 1982, discovered that Black women wrote books, packed in my law degree, joined an acting class run by an African American woman in the group, got a job on a play of hers, and moved directly to London.”

Andoh spent nearly a decade as a stage actor before breaking into film, television, and audio in the 1990s. Her advocacy work as a champion for actors and writers of color is just as impressive as her filmography. She co-founded an award for science fiction writers of color, frequently serves on awards committees celebrating the work of women writers and writers of color, and has spoken openly about the struggles and barriers women of color face in the acting industry. 

Though widely recognized for her contributions to stage and screen in the UK, she deserves about 500% more acclaim in the U.S. So, let’s look at some of her notable roles, from her earliest gigs to her biggest blockbusters.

Like so many British actors of her generation, Andoh cut her teeth on long-running soaps and dramas early in her acting career. Andoh began her career as a stage actor in the 1980s, but it wasn’t long before she booked her first television role, a recurring role in the iconic BBC soap opera EastEnders in 1990. She plays a singer at the Queen Vic, the pub where much of the series is set. Soap-typical drama ensues, involving far too many side characters to elaborate on, but suffice it to say Andoh appeared in nine episodes.

EastEnders is streaming on BritBox.

Most prolific among Andoh’s early work is Casualty, the BBC’s longest-running medical drama. She appeared in 73 episodes between 2000 and 2003 in a regular role, playing emergency room nurse Colette Griffiths. The decisive, no-nonsense Colette is a bit of a precursor to the many assertive women that Andoh went on to play as her star rose. Reflecting on her time on Casualty, she recalled that working with the long-running main cast of the show taught her discipline in her acting work.

Casualty is streaming on BritBox.

In the third and fourth seasons of the first revival of the sci-fi series Doctor Who, Andoh played the recurring role of Francine Jones, the mother of Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), who was the companion to the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant). Though the mothers of Doctor Who companions are much maligned as overbearing nuisances, Andoh brought a groundedness and gravity to the role, especially in the harrowing Season 3 finale. 

Andoh isn’t the only member of Martha Jones’s family to go on to great acclaim. Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who played Martha’s sister Tish, is following in Andoh’s footsteps in her own rise to stardom. Mbatha Raw most recently appeared in Marvel’s Loki and is heading back to the Whoniverse soon.

Doctor Who Seasons 1 through 13 (The First Reboot Series) are streaming on Max.

Andoh made her Hollywood debut in Invictus, the 2009 film based on the true story of South Africa’s men’s rugby team in the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The Oscar-nominated film highlights the efforts of newly elected Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) to dismantle barriers to the team’s success that still loom large in the aftermath of apartheid. Andoh plays Mandela’s chief of staff, Brenda Mazibuko (based on his real-life chief of staff, Barbara Masekela). 

Invictus is available as a streaming rental on AppleTV.

Setting aside her work in film and television, Andoh’s career as a renowned Shakespearean actor (among other roles) would be enough to situate her among the “greats” of British actors. Though her stage roles are too numerous to list here (and far too few filmed), one stands out for its craft and impact. In 2019, Andoh co-directed and starred in a stunning production of Shakespeare’s Richard II alongside a cast of all women of color at the Globe Theatre. She devised the production “to create a space where women of color could for once just come and be artists” as an antidote to a lifetime of being the only woman, a person of color, or both in the room. Andoh starred as the titular king, and the play tells the story of his deposition amid political turmoil. 

Richard II is streaming on YouTube.

Though already established as one of Britain's most talented actors, Andoh gained a worldwide fanbase with her role in one of the biggest shows of the last five years, Bridgerton. Andoh stars in the Regency period drama as Lady Danbury, a respected lady of the ton and mentor to Simon Bassett (Regé-Jean Page). Lady Danbury’s social machinations and delightful friendship with Lady Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) weave throughout the seasons and ground the show’s rotating cast. Andoh also appears as Lady Danbury in the Bridgerton spinoff prequel Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, with Aresema Thomas portraying her younger self.

Bridgerton Seasons 1 through 3 and the Queen Charlotte prequel are streaming on Netflix. Season 4 is in production.

Netflix (and its audience!) clearly couldn’t get enough of Andoh because shortly after starring in Bridgerton, she appeared in Season 2 of another beloved Netflix drama, The Witcher. She traded the fantasy of romantic Regency England for the grittier, literal fantasy of the medieval-inspired Witcher. She played priestess Nenneke, appearing in two episodes. Not unlike her role as Lady Danbury, Nenneke serves as a mentor to Witcher hero Geralt (Henry Cavill). Andoh drew on her West African heritage to bring the priestess to life and make the character her own.

The Witcher Seasons 1 through 3 are streaming on Netflix. Season 4 is expected to be released soon, and Season 5, the final season, is in production.

Silent Witness is just the most recent of many shows, including Doctor Who and EastEnders, to bring Andoh back for a more prominent role after first casting her in a minor role. (The joke about only ten working actors in Britain doesn’t bear repeating, yet…) The crime drama follows a team of forensic pathologists, and has been running since 1996. After playing a minor role in a 2007 episode, Andoh returned to the series in 2020 as a featured guest, playing DI Nina Rosen, a tenacious detective investigating a deadly plane crash.

Silent Witness Seasons 1 through 27 are streaming on BritBox.

Andoh’s voice is likely at least as recognizable as her face to the well-trained ears of audiobook listeners. She’s narrated audiobooks, played roles in radio dramas, and even lent her voice to video games. Among her most recent voice work is the documentary The Real Crown: Inside the House of Windsor, which she narrates. The documentary tells the inside story of the British royal family throughout six decades of British history.

The Real Crown: Inside the House of Windsor is streaming on select PBS Passports. Check your local streaming service.