Michaela Coel’s taboo-breaking, convention-defying drama raised thorny questions and withheld easy answers
It seems that black creatives are often positioned as perpetual rising stars. No matter what has been achieved, how far up the career ladder they climb, they are always at the precipice of a big break, suspended in up-and-comer limbo much longer than their white counterparts. Recipients of the Bafta rising star award for the last three years have been deserved black actors, who are still yet to be presented deserved best actor awards from the same institution.
This is no better illustrated than by Michaela Coel. This has been dubbed “her breakout year”, despite having won the Bafta for best female comedy performance for Chewing Gum in 2016, given a groundbreaking MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV festival in 2018 and boasting a list of credits (including Black Mirror and Star Wars) that would make her the envy of many contemporaries. Yet, it is her BBC and HBO series I May Destroy You that has finally entrenched her position as a televisual thaumaturge.