Paapa Essiedu

Paapa Essiedu is an acclaimed British actor with a diverse career spanning television, film, and theatre. The London born actor has garnered many award nominations including Emmy and BAFTA TV nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his breakout performance in Michaela Coel’s era defining show, I MAY DESTROY YOU.

Paapa has just completed his run at the National Theatre in THE EFFECT, written by Lucy Prebble. He starred opposite Taylor Russell in the critically acclaimed revival. In the spring Paapa starred in Charlie Brooker’s long-awaited season 6 of the cult anthology series, BLACK MIRROR in Demon 79. Next up, Paapa will return to television screens in series 2 of the Sky Original thriller, THE LAZARUS PROJECT, created and written by Joe Barton (Giri/Haji). This winter Paapa will star opposite Melissa McCarthy in Working Title/Universal’s GENIE, directed by Sam Boyd and written by Richard Curtis. The film is a remake of Curtis’ beloved classic of the same name. 2024 will see Paapa star opposite Saoirse Ronan in THE OUTRUN.  Based on Amy Liptrot’s bestselling memoir, the feature is directed by Nora Fingscheidt.

In the last two years Paapa has fronted a primetime BBC One series, The Capture and had a key supporting role in Alex Garland’s feature, MEN, which starred Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear.  2022 also saw Paapa return to the stage in Lyndsey Turner’s critically acclaimed staging of Caryl Churchill’s seminal play, A NUMBER, starring opposite Lennie James. Short film FEMME, in which Paapa starred opposite Harris Dickinson, was nominated in the Best British Short category in the 2022 BAFTAs and won the BIFA Award for Best Short Film.

Further screen credits include GANGS OF LONDON (HBO/Sky Atlantic); ANNE BOLEYN (Channel 5); UNSAID STORIES (ITV); PRESS (Masterpiece/BBC One); BLACK EARTH RISING (BBC Two); KIRI (Channel 4); THE MINIATURIST (BBC). Further theatre credits include playing ‘Hamlet’ in Simon Godwin’s lauded production HAMLET at the RSC; THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR (RSC, dir. Philip Breen); KING LEAR (National Theatre, dir. Sam Mendes); PASS OVER (Kiln Theatre, dir. Indhu Rubasingham’s).