Blacklisted Conversations

Actor, Activist, Rapper Riz Ahmed joined forces with filmmaker Bassam Tariq to bring us the timely film Mogul Mowgli. The film tells the story of Zed, a British Pakistani rapper, who decides to fly home to the UK to visit the family he has not seen in two years. Suddenly struck down by an autoimmune disease Zed descends into a physical and emotional crisis. Tackling self identity, from the UK to A...

Before becoming Artistic Director of the Unicorn Theatre, the UK’s leading professional theatre dedicated to producing inspiring and invigorating work for young audiences, Justin Audibert had established himself as a director, collaborating with organisations such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Southwark Playhouse and Soho Theatre.  Over lockdown, Audibert’s calendar cont...

BBC One’s sitcom GHOSTS has returned for a second series with two of our faves, Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Lolly Adefope . Ghosts is about a young couple Alison and Mike who inherit an old country home that they plan to update to a family hotel, however the house comes with a crew of ghosts. Kiell plays Mike, and Lolly plays Kitty one of the ghosts. With the first series of Ghosts averaging 3.7million...

Breis is considered an OG of the UK rap game. With a career that kicked off in the 90s, the rapper, turned teacher, turned author has recently released a new book entitled ' Diary of a Creative Mind' which compliments his new EP  Arise & Shine  which touches on many of the issues that Black artists in the UK have to face including race & racism, finances and performing. &nbs...

Actor, Writer & Director Aki Omoshaybi has released his debut feature 'Real'. The story set in inner-city Portsmouth, follows Kyle (Aki Omoshaybi) and Jamie (Pippa Bennett-Warner) who despite, their outward confidence, are both struggling to move on from hardship they’d rather keep hidden as they navigate new love. Described as an 'authentic and touching love story from a place where second ch...

Dominique Fishback calls herself ' the heroine of a 1000 faces ' because of the many creative hats she wears. Steadily creating a reputation as a scene stealing actress based on her previous roles in The Deuce, Random Acts of Flyness and The Hate U Give Dominique will soon be seen alongside Daniel Kaluuya's ' Fred Hampton ' in Judas and The Black Messiah in which she plays Fred's fiancee Deborah J...

You may know Ashley Bannerman as 'Remy' one of the leading characters in the award winning web/TV series Brothers With No Game. Going on to star in popular UK TV shows like Casualty, Law and Order: UK, and the BBC adaptation of Zadie Smith's book 'NW'. Bannerman's also had a taste of Hollywood starring in The Infiltrator starring Brian Cranston. Now you can watch Ashley in Netflix's new fantasy se...

TBB Talks To… Award-Winning British Playwright & Screenwriter Roy Williams One of Britain’s most renowned playwrights, Roy Williams has nearly 30 plays to his name, including the Alfred Fagon Award-winning  Starstruck  and the Olivier-nominated  Sucker Punch . Most recently, his play  Death of England , co-written by Clint Dyer, completed an acclaimed run at the National Th...

Greenacre Films is an independent production company founded by award-winning producers Nadine Marsh-Edwards and Amanda Jenks. The two bonding over a desire to create fresh, surprising stories with diverse voices. Having brought to us 2018's groundbreaking Been So Long starring Michaela Coel and Arinze Kene, now, they have produced Unsaid Stories - a response to the current Black Lives Matter...

Since lockdown, the Creative Arts across screen, stage, literature, and sound has had to completely rethink how it continues to make content whilst keeping safe. Along with being conscious of how to engage an audience overwhelmed with the availability of online content across a number of platforms whilst during & Post lockdown with restrictions and social distancing guidelines affecting the us...

When you go for a role that has global interest, meaning you're competing with the world, and then you get that role... 'It must be nice' as the kids say. TBB Talks caught up with the newly appointed director of Sundance Film Festival, Tabitha Jackson. A Brit. A Woman. A Mixed Race Woman. Making her the first Woman to take this position, the first non-American, and the first person of colour. Havi...

British African theatre company tiata fahodzi aims to challenge, reflect and explore the experience of the changing African diaspora in contemporary Britain through the medium theatre. Taking over as the company’s third Artistic Director and CEO in 2014, Ibu brought to the company a particular focus on those who straddle worlds, cultures, languages, classes, heritages, races and struggles. Un...

Rakie Ayola is another UK based Black acting legend who has enjoyed and impressive career across Screen and Stage. Recent productions she's starred in include Talawa Theatre's production of King Lear (2016), and BBC's Noughts and Crosses adaptation (2020). Her talents are as such that most recently she has been cast as Gee Walker, mother of Anthony Walker who was murdered in a racist attack in Liv...

Madeline Appiah is a British Born Ghanaian actress who has has an extensive career on stage and screen. Her most recent stage role saw her playing mother of iconic super-rock star Tina Turner in the West End show 'Tina: The Musical'. Yet even more monumental is Madeline's reoccurring role in Idris Elba's series In The Long Run, which has returned to our screens for a 3rd season. Loosely based on E...

Delroy Lindo, infamously born in the UK, but emigrated to the US when a young child is one of those actors who leaves a great impression whenever he's on screen. Having built up a working friendship with Spike Lee after being cast in Lee's stellar Spike Lee Joints 'Malcolm X', 'Crooklyn' and 'Clockers' they've reunited for Lee's latest Netflix Joint 'Da 5 Bloods' in which Lindo stays true to form,...

Wendell Pierce is known for his roles in HBO dramas such as Detective Bunk Moreland in The Wire and trombonist Antoine Batiste in Treme, as well as portraying James Greer in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, as high-powered attorney Robert Zane in Suits, and as Michael Davenport in Waiting to Exhale.  Pierce also had roles in the films Malcolm X, Ray, and Selma. Pierce performed the lead role of Willy...

TBB Talks spoke to former BBC and Apple Music executive producer Dellessa James, about her new Music position at Amazon. Having previously worked at BBC Radio 1Xtra as exec-producer of The Rap Show and Fire in the Booth, and producing for Trevor Nelson, DJ Target and MistaJam , Dellessa moved to Apple Music in 2018. In September she'll join Amazon Music to oversee their Black music strategy which...

Renay Richardson is an award-winning audio producer and founder of  Broccoli Content.  Richardson made her mark on the UK podcasting industry with her highly-acclaimed series  About Race with Reni Eddo-Lodge. Originally from Dagenham, Essex, as a young black woman living in Britain, she grew increasingly frustrated by the lack of diverse stories and characters featured on screen. De...

TBB Talks ... to Msamati ahead of BBC’s upcoming release of series three of Alan Bennet’s Talking Heads . Playing the part of ' Wilfred Patterson ' and performing the monologue ‘ Playing Sandwiches ’, Msamati will feature in a double bill with Jodie Comer. Msamati's long-standing career across screen and stage has made him one of the most iconic Black actors working in Britain today. He is probabl...

Steady building her career relatively quietly, Weruche Opia is about to blow us away in Michaela Coel's new drama series 'I May Destroy You'. Opia has worked in the UK & Nigeria across screen and stage. Her work includes The Inheritors at The National, Nigeria and Diana Nneka Atuona's Liberian Girl at The Royal Court. Along with roles in TV series' Top Boy, Bad Education, Sliced (alongside lea...

Pippa Bennett-Warner has been steady working in stage and screen for a while now. A quiet talented force, Bennett-Warner has a number of new projects under her belt which are fast cementing her as one of the UK's acting secret weapons. She can currently be seen as 'Shannon' in Sky's new gangster series Gangs of London . Set in the heart of one of the world's most dynamic and multicultural cities,...

TBB Talks to ... Executive Producer and original Lead Director of the new BBC One series Noughts + Crosses, Kibwe Tavares. In an up close and personal conversation with Cyndi Anafo, Tavares shares his unconventional entrance into filmmaking and his journey this far with his company Factory Fifteen. He also touches on a life changing moment during filming Noughts + Crosses in South Africa, and he h...

TBB Talks featuring TBB's literature writer Priscilla Owusu, caught up with the Dapo Adeola & Nathan Bryon to find out how they joined forces to create the groundbreaking kids' book 'Look Up' Illustrator Dapo Adeola and actor/filmmaker Nathan Bryon have teamed up to bring us kids' book 'Look Up'. Look Up is about Rocket, a science-mad chatterbox who is going to be the greatest astronaut, star-...

Rising star Leah Harvey takes a leading role in the National Theatre's production of 'Small Island' as 'Hortense'. TBB Talks to her to discover how she approached developing the character ... Adapted from Andrea Levy's Orange Prize Winning novel Small Island follows the journey Jamaica to Britain, through the Second World War to 1948 – the year the HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury. Adapted fo...

Gershwyn Eustache Jrnr stars in 'Small Island' as 'Gilbert'. TBB Talks to the actor to find out how important being a part of this production is to him...  Gershwyn Eustache Jnr takes on a leading role in the National Theatre's production of Small Island. Adapted from Andrea Levy's Orange Prize Winning novel Small Island follows the journey Jamaica to Britain, through the Second World War to...