SHEILA ATIM
“HARLOTS,” “THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD”
Though a relative newcomer, Atim has already garnered accolades and awards normally reserved for those with decades more experience.
Among many acting awards, including a Laurence Olivier Award for supporting actress in a musical in 2018 for her performance in “The Girl From the North Country,” Atim’s turn opposite Mark Rylance’s Iago in “Othello” garnered rave reviews. She topped off a busy 2019 with a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE).
“It’s so lovely to have work recognized in that way; that’s not the primary reason why I do it,” says Atim, calling her love of acting a form of expression and communication. “But it’s always a nice cherry on the top to know that people are being affected by the work you’re doing in a positive way.”
Along with acting and modeling, Atim is also a singer, composer (the score for the play “Time is Love”) and playwright, with her play “Anguis,” debuting at last year’s Edinburgh Festival.
She only began acting after graduating from King’s College in
London with a degree in biomedical science. While attending art college on the weekends, she was asked by a teacher to be in a play he’d written and the rest sorted itself out. “I was doing something very different; it makes so much more sense now that I’m here,” she says. “It just required the universe to give me a nudge in that direction.”
Onscreen, she has appeared in the series “Harlots” and “Bounty Hunters,” and will be seen in upcoming projects as varied as Barry Jenkins’ “The Underground Railroad” for Amazon, “The Irregulars” for Netflix, the Agatha Christie drama “The Pale Horse” and Halle Berry’s directorial debut “Bruised.”
“I don’t really have a specific plan,” she says. “My part so far has been saying ‘yes’ to the things that present themselves to me and that’s an ethos I’m trying to follow.”
— Paul Plunkett
REPRESENTATION: Agency: Middleweek Newton Talent Management; Management: Fourward. INFLUENCES: Angela Bassett, Naomie Harris, Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys