American Gods
Season 3 M-Net (*101) 22:30 Fantasy
Yetide Badaki (Alex in 2020 thriller film What We Found) doesn’t just steal scenes in fantasy series American Gods (2017-now), she devours them! The 39year-old portrays ancient and powerhungry Bilquis, the goddess of love who consumes anyone who falls for her – in the most intimate of ways. But season 3 is going to see a bit of a change to the god character, explains Yetide: “What we’re going to see is that Bilquis goes on a journey of self-discovery, and she breaks free of those restraints in order to step fully into her own power. And that is a terrifying thing!”
1 Yetide is of royal blood – until the age of 12, she lived in Nigeria and she’s the first child of the first son of a tribal chieftain, making her a princess.
2 The actress didn’t have a lot of historical information to base her character on. “I spoke to the producers and they told me that unlike Norse god Odin, Bilquis isn’t a ‘real’ god. Bilquis is based on the Queen Of Sheba, who’s mentioned in the Bible, so I created her based on this Arabian ruler who gave guests gifts,” says Yetide.
3 Although the Badaki family have lived in the US since 1993, Yetide was only granted citizenship in 2014.
4 She’s been a fan of the American Gods graphic novels since they were published by author Neil Gaiman (Bad Omens, 1990 – it was also adapted for TV in 2020) in 2001.
5 She is a Trekkie (fan of sci-fi series Star Trek, 1965-now) and had a crush on Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart, Professor X in the X-Men movies, 2000-now).