The actress was awared for her perfomance in Michael B Jordan’s Sinners
Chorlton’s Wunmi Mosaku paid an emotional tribute after she won a Bafta Film award for her work in Sinners on Sunday evening (February 22).
Mosaku, who emigrated from Nigeria to Manchester with her family when she was just one-years-old, rose to prominence in 2009 for her role as Joy in the BBC Two miniseries Moses Jones.
The 39-year-old attended the Trinity Church of England High School in Hulme and Xaverian Sixth Form College in Rusholme before moving to the capital at 18 to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
She quickly landed a string of roles in various hit TV shows, including in ITV’s Vera, HBO’s Lovecraft Country and the hit series Luther, where she acted alongside Idris Elba.
Since then, she has appeared in ITV’s Vera, HBO’s Lovecraft Country and the hit series Luther – starring Idris Elba. She won her first Bafta in 2017, taking home the Best Supporting Actress for her role as Gloria Taylor in the TV film Damilola, Our Loved Boy.
The TV movie told the story of 10-year-old schoolboy Damilola Taylor, who was stabbed in the leg and left to die in a south London stairwell in November 2000.
Recent years have seen her playing the character Hunter B-15 in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Disney+ series Loki before reprising the role in the film Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024.
On Sunday night, Mosaku was joined by a host of Hollywood A-listers at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London for the 2026 Baftas. She was up for the Best Supporting Actress award for her work as Annie, the estranged wife of Michael B. Jordan in Ryan Coogler’s vampire click sinners.
It was one one of the most stacked awards of the night with Marty Supreme’s Odessa A’zion, Sentimental Value’s Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, The Ballad of Wallis Island’s Carey Mulligan, One Battle After Another’s Teyana Taylor and Hamnet’s Emily Watson all nominated. In the end it was Mosaku who took home the award.
The British-Nigerian actress, who is heavily pregnant, said: “Thank you Bafta for this incredible honour. To my daughter, you are my greatest teacher. I am so proud of you, everything begins and ends with you.”
Referencing her role in Sinners, Mosaku said: “I found a part of myself in Annie, a part of my hopes, my ancestral power and connection, parts I thought I had lost or tried to dim as an immigrant trying to fit in.”
Addressing director Coogler, who also directed Black Panther and Creed, she told him: “I felt the presence of the ancestors’ pride and joy daily on your set.”
Mosaku will be hoping to replicate her major accomplishment next month at the 98th Academy Awards in Los Angeles. In one of the hardest awards to predict, she is nominated once again alongside Lilleaas and Taylor, with Sentimental Value’s Elle Fanning and Weapons’ Amy Madigan also nominated.
The precursors have been unable to split the pack, with Madigan the initial frontrunner until Taylor took home the award at the Golden Globes last month.
