Ryan Coogler’s Sinners movie sets the Box office in a frenzy when it was newly released in April 2025 making top cinematic reviews and massive fan following in the U.S. and across the globe. The African American dominated cast made a landmark performance in delivering a production that has earned the movie a historic rating. Among the remarkable cast is Nigeria born British actress, Wunmi Mosaku.
Mosaku was born in Zaria, Nigeria, and subsequently emigrated to Manchester, England, when she was one year old. She attended Trinity Church of England High School and Xaverian Sixth Form College. She also sang for eleven years in the Manchester Girls Choir. She is Yoruba. Her parents were both professors in Nigeria. Her mother started a business and her father ended up returning to Nigeria. Mosaku studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 2007, with a BA in Acting Degree (H Level).
She has built a strong viewership love across all genre making her one to watch on screen since progressing from her long career in British theatre performances and mini-series. The Sinners star has been making grand acting rounds in some of Hollywood’s blockbusters from HBO’s 2020 Lovecraft Country to Marvel’s reprised Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024. The British actress has been nominated for the BAFTA for Best Actress and won the BIFA for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film for her role as Rial in the film His House (2020).
Since 2008, she appeared in the first of the UNDEREXPOSED exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery, designed to raise the profile of black role models and celebrates the talent that exists among the Black British community. Her photo also appeared on Commercial Way, Peckham, London, as part of the exhibition. In 2009, she starred in the BBC Two series Moses Jones, for which she won Best Actress in a Miniseries at the Rome Fiction Festival.
She featured on the front cover of Screen International magazine June–July 2009, as one of the UK Stars of Tomorrow, and in 2011 was featured in Nylon Magazine‘s 2011 Young Hollywood issue. In 2010, Wunmi Mosaku was named one of The Seven Fresh Faces of Toronto International Film Festival, for I Am Slave, in which she starred. For her performance Mosaku won awards such as Best Actress at the Birmingham Black Film Festival, Best Onscreen performance at the Cultural Diversity Awards and Best Female performance at the Screen Nation Awards.
In 2011, Mosaku appeared in Vera in the role of Holly Lawson. In 2015, Mosaku played the part of Quentina, a traffic warden, in the three-part BBC series Capital based on John Lanchester’s novel of the same name. In 2016, she appeared in Playtest, an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror.
The proudly Yoruba speaking Nigerian British star never shies away from associating with her Nigerian roots promoting African culture and fashion. She has been dubbed one of the stars to look out for in Hollywood paving her way to soon become one of the best actresses in British and American film industries.