| Intro | English television, film, and theatre actress and poet |
| Is |
Actor Film actor |
| From | United Kingdom |
| Type | Film, TV, Stage & Radio |
| Gender | female |
| Birth | 1990, Slade Green, United Kingdom |
| Age: | 30 years |
Jade Anouka (born c. 1990) is an English actress and poet. She is known for her various stage roles and for her appearances in the ITV dramas Trauma and Cleaning Up.
Early life and education
Anouka was born in London, the second of three children born to a maths teacher mother from Trinidad and a mortgage adviser father from Jamaica. She has a brother and a sister who pursued careers in science. She grew up in Bexleyheath and attended grammar school in Bexley, London, but asked to transfer to a school in Lewisham for sixth form, as she was one of the few black students in Bexley. She ran track prior to transferring to Lewisham, as she did not want to compete against her old teammates.
Anouka took her first steps into acting while attending a Saturday morning drama club in Dartford, Kent. While at sixth form, Anouka received a scholarship to the National Youth Theatre and then attended the Guildford School of Acting. She was hired immediately after graduation by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, where she earned a postgraduate award in teaching Shakespeare.
Career
Anouka made her stage debut in 2007 with a role in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad. In 2011, she received a Commendation at the Ian Charleson Awards for her 2010 performance as Ophelia in Hamlet at Shakespeare’s Globe.
She had small television roles in Doctor Who (2013), Chewing Gum (2015), and Stan Lee’s Lucky Man before getting a supporting role in the 2018 miniseries Trauma.
In 2014, she received the Stage Award for Acting Excellence for her one-woman show, Sabrina Mahfouz’s Chef, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In 2015, she brought the show to London for a week of special performances.
Anouka took part in Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female Shakespeare trilogy, starring as Mark Antony in Julius Caesar at the Donmar Warehouse, Hotspur in Henry IV at the Tonic Theatre, and Ariel in The Tempest at the King’s Cross Theatre, and on Broadway. She earned rave reviews for her roles in the three plays, which were broadcast on the BBC in 2018. In 2018, she also played Margaret of Anjou in Jeanie O’Hare’s Queen Margaret, at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. She was named among the InStyle BAFTA Breakout Stars for 2018.
In 2019, Anouka appeared in Cleaning Up, a six-part drama on ITV. She will also co-star with Idris Elba in the upcoming Netflix series Turn Up Charlie.
Anouka also performs her poetry on stage, and in 2017, she published a volume of her poetry called Eggs On Toast.