Nikki Amuka-Bird
Nikki Amuka-Bird is a British actress of the stage, television, and film. She is known for her appearances on TV series such as Small Island, NW, and I, Jack Wright, and appeared in the 2019 film The Personal History of David Copperfield.
Early life and education
Nikki Amuka-Bird was born in Delta State, Nigeria, where her father still lived as of 2018. She left there as a young child with her mother and was brought up in England, Lagos and in Antigua.Attending boarding school at Hurtwood House in England, Amuka-Bird originally hoped to be a dancer. That ambition was thwarted by injury, after she hurt her back, so she enrolled at drama school.
She attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She started her stage career with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Career
Amuka-Bird's theatrical credits include Welcome to Thebes ; Twelfth Night ; World Music ; Top Girls ; A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest and The Servant of Two Masters ; Doubt: A Parable.Her film credits include The Omen, Cargo, Almost Heaven as well as the screen adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's novel The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. On television, Amuka-Bird appeared in Spooks, The Line of Beauty, The Last Enemy, Robin Hood, an episode of Torchwood, and a recurring role in the reimagined BBC apocalyptic series Survivors. In 2010 she appeared as Detective Superintendent Gaynor Jenkins in the BBC's Silent Witness.
She appeared in Small Island, the BBC adaptation of Andrea Levy's award-winning novel, broadcast in December 2009. She starred in the TV production of Zadie Smith's novel NW, broadcast on BBC Two on 14 November 2016 and Amuka-Bird received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress.
On Christmas Day 2017, she was heard as the voice of the Glass Woman in the Doctor Who Christmas Special "Twice Upon a Time" broadcast on BBC One.
She played the role of Rav Mulclair, Head of Judd Mission Control, in HBO's Avenue 5 from 2020 to 2022. She had a few film roles in 2019 for The Personal History of David Copperfield as Miss Steerforth and 2021 for Old as Patricia, a psychologist with epilepsy.
In 2025 she played a lead role as Sally Wright I, Jack Wright.