Ncuti Gatwa

Mizero Ncuti Gatwa (born 15 October 1992) is a Rwandan-Scottish actor. Beginning his career on stage at the Dundee Repertory Theatre, he was a nominee for an Ian Charleson Award for his performance as Mercutio in a 2014 production of Romeo & Juliet at HOME.

Gatwa's screen breakthrough came with playing Eric Effiong in the Netflix drama television series Sex Education (2019–2023), which earned him a BAFTA Scotland Award and three BAFTA Television Award nominations. He rose to further prominence portraying the fifteenth incarnation of the Doctor in the BBC/Disney+ science fiction series Doctor Who (2023–present), and appearing in the film Barbie (2023) and the television series Masters of the Air (2024).

Early life
Gatwa was born in Nyarugenge, Kigali, Rwanda, on 15 October 1992. His father, Tharcisse Gatwa, from Rwanda's Karongi District, is a journalist with a PhD in theology.

The family escaped from Rwanda during the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi in 1994 and settled in Scotland. They lived in Oxgangs in Edinburgh, and moved to Dunfermline when he was 15. Gatwa attended Boroughmuir High School and Dunfermline High School before moving to Glasgow to study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Acting in 2013. While studying, he worked at the LGBTQ+ club The Polo Lounge, handing out flyers and later becoming a go-go dancer. The Conservatoire awarded him an honorary doctorate at the class of 2022 graduation ceremony.

2013–2021: Early stage work and breakthrough with Sex Education
After graduating, Gatwa was granted a position in the Dundee Repertory Theatre acting graduation scheme where he performed in several productions including David Greig's Victoria. Around this time, Gatwa was attacked by three strangers in the street who fractured his jaw; this was fixed with titanium. He had a brief role in the 2014 sitcom Bob Servant, which was also set and filmed in Dundee. In 2014, Gatwa received a Commendation at the Ian Charleson Awards for his 2014 performance of Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet at Home, Manchester.

In 2015, he appeared in a supporting role in the miniseries Stonemouth, an adaptation of the 2012 novel of the same name. That same year, he performed in the Kneehigh Theatres production of 946, which was adapted from Michael Morpurgo's The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips about the rehearsals for the D-Day landing in Devon with numerous fatalities. Gatwa played Demetrius in the 2016 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare's Globe directed by Emma Rice.

In May 2018, Gatwa was cast in the Netflix comedy-drama series Sex Education as Eric Effiong; the show was released in 2019 and garnered critical acclaim. For five months prior to this casting, he had been homeless after running out of savings, and had couch surfed. Gatwa received praise for his portrayal of Eric from critics, particularly for how his character was not relegated to the cliché of "gay or black best friend slash sidekick stock character". He has earned numerous accolades for the role, including a BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Actor in Television in 2020, and three BAFTA Television Award nominations for Best Male Comedy Performance, one in 2020, 2021 and 2022 consecutively.

2022–present: Doctor Who and rise to prominence
In April 2022, Gatwa was cast in Greta Gerwig's Barbie. He performed an excerpt of Romeo and Juliet with Mei Mac at the 2023 Coronation Concert, and topped the Radio Times's TV 100 power list the same year. In May 2022, it was announced that Gatwa had been cast in Doctor Who as a new incarnation of the show's protagonist, the Doctor, succeeding Jodie Whittaker in the role. Gatwa, who was cast in February, was the first black actor to lead the series, the fourth Scottish actor, and the first actor born outside the United Kingdom to do so. He was expected to take over the role in the third and final of the 2022 specials in October 2022, but the final Thirteenth Doctor story "The Power of the Doctor" revealed that Gatwa would play the Fifteenth Doctor, with David Tennant (who had previously played the Tenth Doctor) returning to play the Fourteenth Doctor. He debuted in "The Giggle", the third of the 60th anniversary specials, on 9 December 2023, and starred in his first full episode, "The Church on Ruby Road" on Christmas Day 2023, which was followed by the show's fourteenth series. His performance in Doctor Who has earned praise from critics. Many writers for The Independent called Gatwa's acting "interstellar" and "mesmerising". Naina Bajekal of Time magazine believed that Gatwa was "bringing Doctor Who into a new era". Mary McNamara of Los Angeles Times called Gatwa "an absolute delight" and wrote that his "unbridled exuberance makes this an easy sell and serves as a data bridge between new viewers and old."

In April 2024, it was announced that Gatwa was cast as Algernon Moncrieff in The Importance of Being Earnest in the Lyttleton Theatre at the National Theatre, London from November 2024 until January 2025.

Personal life
Gatwa publicly came out as queer in an August 2023 interview with Elle magazine, having previously avoided discussing his sexuality in spite of popular speculation for his "safety and mental health." In the interview, Gatwa noted that he preferred not to label himself, and that he had been inspired by both his work on Sex Education and an encounter with a Rwandan woman at Manchester Pride some years prior, having "never met another queer Rwandan person before". He later stated that he had "never been in the closet, you know. I just never talked about it. The work I do is what's important."

Gatwa enjoys astrology, and is a Libra Sun.